The Powers Within
by Creedog VanDrey
Summary: Book 1 of the Creedogmon's Power of Crests Trilogy. Based on Debbie's Power of Crest series. New DigiDestined fight in the DigiWorld, without digimon and only with mysical powers from their crests.
1. Prologue: DigiPorting

The Powers Within: DigiPorting

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDery

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: General, Fantasy

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Based on the extraordinary series by Debbie (Dai-chan). This story tells about a group of teenagers that become DigiDestined, stranded in the DigiWorld without partner digimon.

A/N: Call me Creedog. I've dropped the suffix because I'm a recovering Digiholic. I mostly help out with Godeerc's fics, and I've recently been promoted to assistant partner. I don't know how that works out. Anyway, aside from doing the Godeerc the Mystic fics, I'm redoing the trilogy of this series. Okay, okay, I'll be redoing the first two parts. I'll be finishing the third part… eventually. I know. I said that years ago. But I've lately grown close to my Digimon stories again. Mainly because we're using the same characters in this fic for the New Friends series. Call me sentimental. _Friends _fans, unless you are a current or former digifan, I would not suggest reading the rest of this. Anyway, I wrote this forever and a half ago, and Godeerc has decided to kick my butt into gear by making me work on it. Okay, before I start with "DigiPorting," I must give you a time and place. This takes place in the United States, in a small town called Raytonville, Georgia, near Savannah, in the spring of 2001. These are the same characters as Godeerc's New Friends fics, but they are different ages, about sixteen years younger. Don't worry. It's complicated. Also, I may switch points of view. Most of it will be through the eyes of Christopher VanDrey, my alter ago, but I may switch points of views, though not without marking it with a triple-asterisk, which may not appear because of silly HTML encoding. Instead look for a triple-colon. Now, stop reading the Author's Note and read the story.

* * *

Prologue: DigiPorting

"Esperanza, come back here." I tell the rowdy two-year-old I am babysitting, or at least trying to, who is currently running up a storm in my backyard on a sunny Sunday afternoon. When I finally get a hold on her, she giggles, her sea-green eyes sparkling and her honey-colored hair swaying. Her name is actually Virginia, but I have given her the Spanish nickname meaning, "hope."

I hear a meow from the grass. Turning, I see it is my red-orange cat, Katmondu. "Hey, Katmondu," He tumbles over, showing his white paws and breast. He looks up to me with his green eyes and meows again. The noise sends Virginia, a born cat-lover, chasing him. Katmondu, ingeniously, runs away. I get up to chase her again, pushing my dark brown hair away from my dark golden eyes.

Katmondu makes a U-turn to evade Virginia, but stops to look into the air, and once again meows loudly, in a curious sort of way. I turn to see what interests him. I find out soon enough. Jetting from the horizon are three meteorites… or three somethings. I watch in awe, but realized that they're on a collision course with my backyard. My awe turns to fear as the glowing spheres near the ground.

My heart racing, I turn to protect my cat or my babysittee, but neither of the two is within reach. I jump, tripping, just as I see one ball of light hit right in front of my cat, causing a cloud of dust to obscure my view. Helpless, I close my eyes as I am brushed against my waist by whatever is falling from the sky. I hear another crash to my right. My instinct tells me Virginia was sitting where it crashed.

I lie in the dirt for a minute, startled, and finally look up, hoping the chaos is over. Katmondu is fine, pawing irritably on something at his neck. I turn to my side to see Virginia trying to get at something from inside the breast pocket of her dark salmon-colored overalls. I flip onto my back and inspect my side. There is something latched on to the waist of my belt. I grab it and recognize it immediately, a D-3 from the cartoon show _Digimon_, looking somewhat like the toy D-3 one of my friend plays with at school. Unlike the toy, it's make of a light metal, rather than plastic. It resembles somewhat a walkie-talkie. The grip padding is of an aquamarine color. I assume that I'm either dreaming or lost in some weird daydream.

As I wonder about this thing, my cat brushes against my leg. I see that on his neck is a much smaller D-3, the grip light blue, nearly white. Virginia run-waddles up to me, displaying what she has finally removed from her overall pocket, yet another small D-3, pale yellow. To my surprise, it begins to glow with a yellow glow, almost causing her to drop it. Sensing another light emitting from my hand, I turn to see the screen of my own D-3 also glowing with a turquoise light. Predicting correctly, the digivice on my cat's neck is also glowing with a similar ice blue light.

As the glowing become brighter, I shield my eyes, but soon I am blinded by a consuming blur of opaque light. I am forced to close my eyes, and soon feel strangely weak and lightheaded. Then everything goes black.

: : :

"Hey, I'm first base!" screams Haley Queens, a nice but somewhat whiny ninth grader at Westwood Jr. High. "Come on, Haley, you can get it next inning." comforts her best friend, Jessica Williams, a quiet but very friendly girl. Jessica shakes her head and sighs in defeat, causing her shoulder-length bronze blonde hair to sway in front of her jade-green eyes.

Daniel Ponille, a tall, tan-haired boy, laughs at this entire episode. _All this_, he thinks, _over a silly game of recreation softball in PE._ Then his mind turns to something else: Chris VanDrey. Matt, a mutual friend of both Daniel and Chris, is good friends with the VanDreys. Matt informed him that he and a two-year-old he was babysitting both turned up missing the day before. No clues; he just kind of disappeared while playing in his backyard.

His thoughts are interrupted by the PE coach, Coach Adams. He motions people to the field. Josh Barrakson, a somewhat crazy individual, is up first to bat, jokingly mimics a profession baseball player with elaborate batting motions. His first swing sends the ball about a mile into the air, nearly straight up. The entire infield looks up, dumbfounded. Daniel, an athlete by trade, reaches to catch the ball, which he sees heading straight towards him. He closes his glove skillfully as the ball lands squarely into his grip, though rather heavily. He would have cheered, but either Josh severely screwed up the shape of the ball with his hit or Daniel had caught something else. It was also strange that he could have sworn he saw out of the corner of his eye Jessica catch the ball, as well.

Opening his glove, he looks at the object oddly. It was some walkie-talkie-looking thing: a white apparatus with buttons and a little screen with tan-colored gripping. He turns to see Jessica looking at what she caught with a similar bemused expression. That's when Haley yelps, rubs her arm, the baseball rolling innocently in front of her foot. "Jessica, what the heck did you catch? It sure wasn't the ball. I knew we should have played Prisonball."

"I don't know. I think it's a walkie-talkie. Aaack!"

She nearly drops the apparatus when it starts to glow. Daniel's glows as well. Jessica's objects glows in a strange pink-purple color, Daniel's in a brownish color. Suddenly, the strange devices flash brightly. Haley nearly faints when she fails to see her best friend. Others notice that Daniel is not present either. Haley then faints.

: : :

"Whoa. What was that?" comments Matt Jomahns, a tall boy with brown hair, classic brown. "What was that flash?" he says to himself. His though are awakened by the exploding sound of one of Mr. Terek's mini-rockets going off. The teacher then lectures about velocity, and projectiles, and such. Matt is not listening. His mind is on one of his best friends, Chris VanDrey. Yesterday afternoon, he and a toddler girl disappeared in his backyard, just vanished.

He sighs and looks up to the sky. Looking for the rocket, he squints and shades his eyes against the blaring sun. He jumps back. For a moment, he thought the rocket was heading straight toward him, but he calms down as the rocket lands safely on the ground on the baseball field across the lawn.

Mindlessly looking toward the sky again, he jumps back. He clamps his hands in front of himself reflexively. Whatever was he saw flying toward him had reached its destination. After cushioning the impact of the projectile with his chest, he opens his hands to peer at a strange mechanical device. A dark, forest green-colored gripping covers a white electronic toy-like object.

He nudges his friend beside him. "Hey, James," he whispers, "did you see this thing fall out of the sky?"

Taking it out of his hand, he replies, "Oh my gosh, you got one of those B-3's or whatever Phillip has. It a video game. Where'd you get it?"

"It fell from the sky,"

"Oh no, the sky is falling; the sky is falling," James jokes.

"Dude, really,"

"Okay, what funny chemical did you burn in Miss Lee's class today?"

Matt rolls his eyes and sighs in defeat. _I guess I wouldn't believe me either. Besides, I haven't had Mrs. Lee's class yet._

Awakened from his thoughts by a bright light, he shields his eyes, looking down toward the thing in his hand. The light coming from it becomes brighter and flashes violently. Matt feels a strong force pulling him back, then...

: : :

"I really think we need to reevaluate putting this picture in the yearbook, Justine," a condescending voice says.

"Come on, it's hilarious,"

"Want to go ask Mr. Brooks how funny it is?" 

Justine Reyes rolls her head as well as her eyes, "All right, all right, but you get to tell Blake his picture isn't going into the yearbook."

"Fine with me; he practically worships me," the female answers haughtily.

Justine rebuts, "Yeah, big surprise. One, half the school 'worships' you. Two, Blake worships half the girls in this school."

Maya sneers, but turns back to the rest of the class. Justine stands by the window, looking outside toward the front parking lot. She squints her eyes to see something near the front door. "Maya, just a sec. I wanna check something out."

"Have fun," she responds sarcastically.

She pushes opens the glass door, leans over, and picks up the object: a white video game device or something with dark blue-purple edges. As she leans to pick it up, it seems to turn on, emitting a purplish light. Pushing her night brown hair away from her face, she erects herself, holding the object, turns and walks onto the tiled floor in the main hall, but stops on the large "W" school logo on the tiled floor when her object glows even brighter. She holds it away from herself, slightly frightened, when it flashes brightly. She screams, but she disappears before her scream is heard.

: : :

Phillip Maxx leans his head back against his chair and stares at the ceiling. _Fluorescent light are definitely more interesting than expanding binomials._ He looks around him, seeing that everyone else is either sleeping (_jocks and goths_, Phillip notices)or listening intensely to the teacher (_geeks and failing students_). He reaches in to his desk, grabs his Digimon D-3 video game, and starts to shake it a little. He pulls it out briefly to look at how many shakes he has left to get to the next boss. He is unable find out. There is something wrong with his toy. For one, his D-3 has suddenly changed color. It used to be gray and black, but now it is marble white and off-white. It also has no output on the screen.

He reaches back into his desk with his free hand, and pulls out the familiar Dark D-3, with a noticeable output of a pixel-drawn Wormmon. He touches the unresponsive screen of the white digivice, causing it to glow brightly. He quickly stuffs it into his desk. No one, including the teacher, is fooled by the covering of the sudden light.

"Phillip. What do you have in your desk?"

"Uh, uh, uh…" 

"Just what I thought. Give me the toy."

Phillip doesn't respond, dumbfounded by the increasing light coming from inside his desk. His fear-stricken expression doesn't change even when Mrs. LeGrene walks down the aisle. "Phillip, now." A great flash blinds her, as well as the rest of the class. When the light subsides, the small, dusty brown-haired boy is gone.

: : :

He sits upon the horizon; his sword by his side, his mane was flowing softly by in the breeze. He sighs heavily, seeing the island in the distance, past the sea, glowing with black light. He grimaces at the sight of one section completely burned down. He closes his eyes abruptly and turns to look behind him. A flat stone plateau covered in vines and roots stands silently. Near eye level, there is a series of cryptic symbols imprinted deep into the stone.

_"They will come,"_ he reads, _but when?_ He looks back onto the horizon. A glimmer of hope twinkles in his eyes for a brief second, believing he'd seen colored streaks on the horizon.

To Be Continued…

: : :

A/N: Whoo! What do you think so far? PS: All surnames were changed, so if you see your name, it is probably not you. If my Author Name, seems familiar, however, tell me and you just might be one of the lucky people a character in my story is based on! Especially if you know that I have a history of it!

(Sonriso) - For the length of this fic, I will make crude puns. You can see me because I consist of two circumflux accents and an underscore, but I'm here! Here is the first one (Aren't you lucky?) "Getting' digi wit' it!" No! Stop running away! There's twelve more parts left!


	2. Protection of Mist

The Powers Within: Protection of Mist

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: General Fantasy

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The story of how Christopher gets his power by learning his destiny.

A/N: Okay, I know these are kind of short, but I have lengthened them from the original posting, so I believe they're much better. I would never have added onto them if Godeerc hadn't coerced me into believing that they were too brief. I also worked with the names and titles a little bit, so if you remember the old version, (well, I might ask you how) it has changed a little bit.

* * *

Chapter 1: Protection of Mist

I blink, then again, and again. Everything starts to come into focus. I am surprised by a sudden pressure upon my stomach. I tilt my head forward, half-expecting to relive the first meeting of Tai and Koromon. Pleasantly surprised, I find it is only Virginia, again showing me her new yellow "toy." I scoot up to a sitting position, sliding her into my lap, and then hugging her. "Okay, Esperanza, where's Katmondu?" not expecting an answer.

_Speak of the devil;_ he moseys in front of me, plops down, and rolls in the dirt beneath us, and meows indignantly. I can't help but laugh; he's such a stupid cat. I scratch his chin and he tilts his head back in mild ecstasy. But my humor soon fades, realizing we are in some strange world. I shake my head thinking to myself, _Great; I am in some Digimon episode_. And my passion for the show is _fading_.

I feel Virginia pulling at my leg. "Mama," she babbles. I sigh sadly, _I knew this was going to happen._ "Mommy's not here. I'm baby-sitting for a while, so she'll be here later." _I hope._

To my dismay, I see her face scrunch up. "Mama," she says before starting to cry. I pick her up, despite her resistance, and put her against my shoulder. "Virginia, please, I don't know when Mommy will be back, but for right now, I'm all you got. I love you as much as Mommy does. I promise." I look down to her; she's still weeping, but quietly. I kiss her head and whisper, "I'm sorry,"

I sigh, as I began to cry softly, too. I feel Virginia shifting in my arms, and bring her in front of me. She, still having tears in her eyes, put her hand on my cheeks, touching a tear. She looks at it and then to me, with a face of innocence. I can't help but smile, as does she. She squirms and I set her down. She starts giggling, fully recovered from her depression, and pulls herself up. Before I know it, she's wandered around me and scurried in to the tall grass.

I grab Virginia's baby bag as well as my backpack and walk into the parted grass, grabbing by cat under the arms as I pass. Shifting him to a position similar to holding a baby, I follow both the pressed-down grass and Virginia's high giggling voice. I start to wonder to myself why there are no Digimon, especially DigiDestined Digimon. _Where is my Digimon partner?_ The giggling mysteriously ceases.

"Virginia!" I call. Following her footsteps in the grass. I find her standing. As I come up to her, I see her eyes, now in wonderment. I look ahead to see what she's staring at.

Before me, in a clearing closed off by trees is a large, round table. Relying on my memory of Digimon episodes, a skill I never thought I'd use, I remember that the Digital Barrier has a tendency to bring blur the line between wilderness and Earthly civilization.

"Jyooz," Virginia mumbles. I see why. Upon the table is a sipping cup of apple juice, her favorite. _Don't you love irony?_ There's also a hamburger, a milk shake, and a plate of cat food that Katmondu has already found. I hand her the bottle without thinking. _Hey, Tai and the gang were never poisoned by coincidentally placed food._ She finished with the juice by the time I'm finished with my milk shake. She's feeling at her diaper. _Uh-oh_, I think. I have a couple of diapers, but no place to change her. And with her rate of change (_No time for jokes_), I'll run out soon. _How did the DigiDestined go for months? T.K. was already eight; that's how._ To my side is a changing table. Now that I think about it, it was there before. I change her diaper and set her down. She runs around the table. I reach under the table and take several extra diapers. I go to eat the hamburger. I'm not that hungry, but I have a feeling, with these two, I might be running on empty soon. _Thank goodness for alcohol-based hand sanitizer._ The smell of alcohol sends Katmondu flying. In his world, the smell of alcohol equals the removal of a tick from his neck. My little Esperanza of course goes chasing after him. I grab the hamburger while I follow their voices. She goes quiet again. I nearly faint when I see why.

_Monochromon_ I think. Sure enough, about a dozen dinosaur-like creatures are growling and scuffing their feet on a small clearing before me.

_'So, Caretaker, how can you take care of the infant now?'_ a strange voice calls.

I turn my head abruptly in different directions. "Who are you? Where are you?" I call, desperately trying to hide my fear. Hearing voices is bad.

_'Why does it matter? If you don't know, I can get them.'_

This voice seems to come from another direction. "Get who?" I say, still turning my head. This time, a voice comes from just above my head.

_'Protection from you?__ That's crazy. I could get them both, and you're worthless to stop me.'_

"Them both? You leave Virginia and my cat alone."

_'Make me.'_

I am alarmed by a large growl. Turning my head bewilderedly, I finally look ahead, where my heart skips a beat. I grab my digivice, wondering what help it is to me. Before me, holding Virginia in his arm, is a strange creature. Standing erect, somewhat humanoid, looking similar to a Monochromon is what I guess to be a digimon.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am SapioMonochromon. And this is the last day for all of you."

"No," I say weakly, under my breath.

He flings out his arm, letting go of Virginia, but grabbing her in his claw. Under his foot is an alive, but struggling Katmondu. He grins evilly, "So Caretaker, it seems you have failed in protecting those who you love. Do you really love them?" With that, he holds Virginia above his head, who has long since been crying, and throws her.

Time seems to slow down. Virginia is flying through the air, toward a large tree. My eyes turn to Katmondu, who is under SapioMonochromon's foot, who has turned his attention to crushing him. I tremble and must be turning ghostly pale. I clench my hands, feeling the digivice in my left hand. "No, no," I say to myself, "NO!" I almost scream closing my eyes, and turn to at a futile attempt to save at least Virginia.

My digivice explodes with light, stopping me. I look toward it, shielding my eyes from the light. Something floats from the screen. A small tab. It turns toward me. I don't get to see it when it shoots forward. Loosing sight of it, I look ahead, amazed. Virginia is floating in the air, suspended, but falling every so slowly. Katmondu is nearly motionless under the foot of SapioMonochromon, who is also as motionless. I lean down, feeling incredible resistance from my body, making me move as slowly, to grab a vine on the ground. I do my best to fling it forward, but my arms feel like they're filled with lead. The vine moves every so slowly, but I find the extra time gives me to ability to make slight adjustments so that it hits SapioMonochromon just right. It wraps itself around his leg, and I pull, my heavy arms pushing back, but he begins to fall back and Katmondu starts to lurch forward, in extreme slow motion.

While I'm not moving with super speed, I am very much viewing it like that. I feel something enter my body, or, more like it, emerge from within it. I see a large sea-green dome overcome me, rolling in like a fog. I start to speak, not thinking up the words, but saying what comes to me. "You were wrong, SapioMonochromon. I am the Caretaker, strong and true. And I will protect those who I care for. But, in defense for them, I shall have no mercy. You are evil, and do not deserve to be so strong." My voice is soft, smooth, and highly audible.

I feel an aquamarine-colored light overcome me and leaving me wearing a full-length, sea-blue robe, hooded. I push the hood off my head, exposing the long, curved locks of hair encircling my face. I run forward, still held back by my body's inertia, but it's significantly less. I scoot Katmondu up and leap forward, catching Virginia, who hasn't fallen but a few feet. I slowly ascend into the air and grab onto a tree branch, which takes me into the thick foliage. There, I leave Virginia and Katmondu in somewhat of a cradle of branches. I jump down, twisting my body to miss the branches as I fall. Time is still moving slowly, but not quite as slowly.

As I exit the foliage, I push myself forward to land on the neck of a charging Monochromon, who undoubtably hasn't had the time to notice that I'm gone. His head bucks back and he dedigitalizes from under my feet. Several more are making their slow progress toward me. I look back and forth; getting used to the amount of force it seems to make movements. I reach for a stick on the ground, and holding it ready to attack. I can only imagine what is looks like to someone in regular time.

: : :

Christopher looks on in pain at SapioMonochromon holding the young child in one hand and the cat under his foot. But as his digivice comes alight, he suddenly acts very strangely. A brief glowing around his body leaves him in robes. With quick, direct motions, he grabs a vine from the ground and flings the end forward, his hand making subtle movements which direct the vine to wrap around SapioMonochromon's leg and landing him on the ground. Meanwhile, he has already sprinted forward, agilely scooping up his cat and picking the child from midair as he disappears for a few seconds, when he lands directly on the neck of a charging Monochromon. A split second later, he has a branch in one hand, which he uses to attack two Monochromon with preternatural skill.

SapioMonochromon screams and begins to breathe fire at Christopher, who tumbles into the narrow row of trees. The rapid heating causes an explosion, clearing a pathway overlooking a bluff, where Christopher stands in ready position.

The Monochromon charge, but the crashing of waves causes a blinding mist, and several dinosaur-like cries indicate the Monochromons' sudden descent into the ocean.

: : :

The sea-blue aura once again engulfed me. A golden glow lights near my chest, and a necklace appears. The tab, my Crest, appears again and inserts itself into the tag necklace resting against my chest. Sharply but softly, I audibly speak, "Protection of Mist."

The waning mist all around me suddenly congeals into small pellets, which fly forward and pierce the shells of the remaining Monochromon, who dedigitalize on impact. SapioMonochromon runs forward at me. Judging the best I can, I move at the last moment possible. He's too quick. He quickly turns and opens his mouth to breathe fire again, but another crashing wave absorbs the heat, and he begins to cough. He looks forward, his eyes wide, realizing the precariousness of his situation. As a larger wave fills the area with mist, I allow the water droplets to lunge forward at him, pushing him farther toward the edge of the bluff, before he falls off. He lands hard on the rocks below, dedigitalizing on painful impact.

Feeling weak, I remove Virginia and Katmondu from the tree. We land safely on the ground, but I finally faint after letting Virginia and Katmondu out of my arms.

: : :

I awake feeling something pulling at my hair. I open my eyes. It is night. The sky is clear and full of glowing stars and an almost full moon. Virginia is sitting on my chest, playing with my hair. I grab her small hands, push them away, and see something that catches my eyes. A lock of my hair is a different color. I scooped up Virginia and walk up to a stream. The moonlight reflects against the water and I see my reflection for an instant. I push up my bangs. Underneath, I have a widow's peak, which was not there before, aquamarine colored. But what really catch my eye are my eyes. On each eye, right above the pupil, there is a blue curve across my brown irises.

Virginia crawls into my lap and touches my face, right in front of my eye. I saw her pull her hand back, rub her fingers together, and look at them with a confused expression. I looked at her hand. It's moist. As I let go, I see more condensation on her wrist. I rub my arms against each other. They are wet. My skin… is giving off moisture.

I touch my shirt. It feels dry. I reached under it; it is wet. I notice something. I feel something against my chest, moving. I look down and there is nothing there, but I realize that I can sense Virginia's presence in my lap. I close my eyes. I can almost make out her movements as the misty pressure against me conforms to her shape.

A meow comes from behind me. As a test, I don't turn around. Using my aura, I try to guess his position. I close my eyes and wait for him to near. I scoop up at something I can't see, but catch my cat. "Meow," he says again. I sigh and giggle softy. I look at Katmondu, then at Virginia. I will have to take care of them, for as long as necessary.

_I am the Caretaker._

: : :

A/N: Well, understand that this is my second time to write them. I'm surprised by how easy they are to work with. Anyway, a big thank-you to Godeerc for his editing.

GV: You switched tenses in the middle of the goshdarn story. You used "your" instead of "you're."

CV: Yeah, yeah, evil mistake, I know. I hate that one. I will most certainly never make that sin again.

(Sonriso) - Well, then I'll never do the pun sin again. But that doesn't stop me from saying anything corny… So the lady says, "That's not a dork, that's Creedogmon…" Yeah, I don't get it either. How do I still have a job?


	3. Ferocity of Blizzard

The Powers Within: Ferocity of Blizzard

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: General, Fantasy

Rating: The Fanfiction Association has rated this fic PG for mild fantasy violence and explicit adult… Oh, wait, never mind. Just the mild fantasy violence. Whoops.

Language: English

Summery: A fic that originally had the same plot as the last chapter with another character. Stuff has been added. The plot is now different but formatted. It's a big jump really. Katmondu, the feline DigiDestined (How do I still have a job?) gets _his_ power.

A/N: There's really not a lot to say about this one. I wrote it awhile ago and I'm just updating it and reposting it, in hopes that I may finish the series. Anyway, because of how my life has changed since, inspiration is coming out the wazoo. It's begging me to write it again. Thanks to Godeerc for his continuing criticism. Thanks to Debbie for the format I'm copying. It's not as good as hers is, but it's a step up from when I did it last. Hers are several times as long, and I still don't know how she does it.

* * *

Chapter 2: Ferocity of Blizzard 

The stars twinkle in the night. I am silent as I carry the sleeping toddler girl in my arms. _Thank goodness she fell asleep_, I think. I look to the ground for my cat. Though I can feel him in my misty aura, I look out of habit. He is close in front of me, unusually. He's usually a wanderer.

He stops suddenly and crouches. His ears turn, instinctively picking the most inaudible of sounds. His head moves back and force, looking for something. I hear him give a disapproving growl. It'd be very impressing if he weren't sixteen inches tall, and the fact that I can easily sneak up on him. I come close to see if I can hear what he is hearing. I hear something like the wind but it is inaudible.

_'Yes, Katmondu, be a tiger. Protect your friends. Your master and his stupid crest and power mean nothing against my own power.'_

In the moonlight, I see a glare from my crest. I pick it up to look at it. The moonlight is not enough to see, even if I squint. Virginia shifts in my arms. "Hey, Virginia," I whisper, "Shhh, you need your sleep." I turn back to my crest. It is glowing softly and I can see my crest within. It is a three-pointed star with a circle in the middle, surrounded by a crescent on the top and two curved droplets on either side. It glows with an aqua-blue tint. _The Crest of Devotion_, I hear my mind say

I jump as my cat hisses loudly. He is moving his head back and forth, and scooting backwards. _Defending himself against an invisible attacker._ He screeches loudly, lifting a paw in the air, threatening to claw something. Condescendingly, I tell him, "You're scratching at nothing."

_'Ha ha ha, Defender. You are useless. You have no crest to defend those who care for you.' _

He again hisses. I hear a crunching sound in the grass. Something falls from the tall grass. It wakes Virginia, who does nothing. It's a small digimon. Red and dog-like, it struggles to raise itself. "Help," it asks meekly, "I am injured. My name is Areromon." Shifting Virginia to one arm, I kneel beside him. He doesn't appear hurt, but is in obvious pain.

"Ree-ow!" screeches Katmondu before slashing at him. I push him back.

"It's okay," the dog-like creature says, "The Defender is just being safe."

"The Defender?"

"Why yes, the Defender of Vigor, he who attacks to defend his allies. It was prophesied that the Defender might not be a Real World human." 

White Paws runs into the grass, predatorily. "I guess he's hungry." I look to Areromon; he lies quietly, occasionally grimacing and looking at the sleeping Virginia.

"She's cute… for a human. Barely in-training, I'd say."

"In-training? Oh, young, yes. Growing out of her baby stage. We call it a toddler back on earth."

"So helpless, Caretaker."

"She is; I guess that's why I was sent with her." I pause, and ask, "How did you know I'm the Caretaker?"

He rolls over, "There are many prophecies. When the Unmons believe that a new set has come, the word gets out quickly. All digimon who've been around for a while know about the DigiDestined. They don't come very often, but when a new set of children do, all the bad digimon go looking for them."

"I'll keep my eyes open. And you know I'm the Caretaker?"

"The Caretaker of Devotion. Your crest is the Crest of Devotion."

"Yeah. All digimon know the crests?"

"Some digimon are artists. Young digimon hear stories involving the crests all the time. They are often illustrated. Some images are more or less self-explanatory."

I hear a squeak and see a small rodent run out. An orange blur jumps out from the bushes and tackles it. I see Katmondu trying to bite it when it dedigitalizes. He looks at the now missing digimon, and meows, annoyed. He sulks back into the grass.

"What was that?" Areromon inquires.

"That was the Defender trying to get dinner."

"Rodentmon aren't very good."

"If it squirms, he'll try to eat it."

Katmondu slams another prey from out of the brush. Then, he begins to eat it.

"Why hasn't it… dissolved?"

Areromon bends his head back to observe, "I guess it's not a digimon. At least not one I recognize."

"How can it not be? It's the DigiWorld."

Areromon is silent. "Well, the broken portal between the worlds is always bringing us stuff. Sometimes the data from your world will spontaneously configure itself into one of your weird objects, but this is the first time we've gotten anything… animal. Plants were the first things to come, but moving creatures are pretty complex. They don't ever come."

"Minus DigiDestined."

"I suppose."

Suddenly, Katmondu lunges toward the injured Areromon.

"Katmondu! NO! Bad kitty!" I scold, pulling him away. I turned to check on the red dog digimon. To my surprise, he has his claws out, prepared to swipe Virginia, who I have set down on the ground. __

"No!" I yell, but she's too far away to save her. I feel my crest glow, but before I start to feel the aura form, a cold gust knocks the digimon away. Areromon leaps back up. "Stupid Defender. Take this! Canine Slash!" He pounces, but is again blown back by a chilly wind.

Looking behind me, I witness a change. My cat, continuously hissing, is surrounded by an icy blue aura, like a snowstorm, with wind circling around it. Within the aura, he glows with the icy blue light like his aura. The glowing form grows larger, and when it subsides, a large tiger of an icy color emerges.

Areromon pounces again, but is quickly hurled across the field by the Defender's paw. I hear a voice, a deep, growling voice coming from the tiger. As he speaks, his mouth does not move, but the voice is definitely coming from around him. "So, Areromon, I am worthless to defend my friends? I don't see it that way. In fact, you seem worthless to come against me."

In a fury, Areromon wildly slashes at the Defender. He is thrown hard into a tree by the cold wind. A small golden glow emits from the tiger's chest. The telepathic voice yells, "Ferocity of Blizzard!" as a stream of icy wind strikes Areromon, who becomes blue with cold, shivering, and dedigitalizes as he falls forward.

The Defender is overcome with cold blue light, shrinks, and falls to the ground. I go to him. "Katmondu are you okay?" He looks up at me sleepily. His eyes have gone from leaf green to a grayish mint green. Yawning, he collapses in sleep. I notice his tail is streaked by a long snow-white stripe.

I look to his collar to and see a golden tag attached. Inside it is an icy blue crest. In the approaching dawn, I can make out a diamond with four curved, claw-like triangles on each side, two facing up, and two facing down: The Crest of Vigor.

As I hold him in one arm, I grab Virginia's hand in the other and walk off into the morning light.

: : :

Midmorning, I see several comets in the sky. Actually, they would be comets if they weren't so brightly colored. Something is vaguely familiar about them, but I can't seem to recall it. All of a sudden, I feel very alone. I have my cat and Virginia with me, but neither can really hold a conversation very well. To tell the truth, they're a lot to keep up with. Granted, that's my job as the Caretaker… I think. But, since Katmondu has gotten powers I guess are similar to mine, he's a protector like me. For someone lost in the wilderness of a strange world with hostile forces, I feel rather safe for myself and for Virginia.

Still, I worry, last night I couldn't call upon my power to fight Areromon. Maybe I can't call upon it. Was it some godsend in the nick of time? If so, why would I be given a tag and crest? Why would I be marked? And if my godsend is used and so it Katmondu's, who's to protect Virginia next time?

I don't know why I worry all of a sudden. For whatever reason, I feel a sense of comfort. We were protected before, we will be protected again. My confidence bemuses me and my doubt seems to be shying away. So, I have faith. Being faithful seems to be more of a state rather than an action, but in this moment, I am not afraid. Someone is watching out for me. I smile.

As a chilly breeze blows around me, in it, I almost hear, "I am the Defender,"

: : :

A/N: Okay, I hope in subsequent stories that subsequent stories will be longer. I wouldn't put too much hope in this third of the trilogy, but in the second third, I hope to make big changes, 'cause right now, it ain't no better than this. The third I have a lot of hope for. I'm breaking the formatting thing, and it's going to be a _story_.

(Sonriso) - And now for Stupid Comments with Sonriso, the part of the fanfic where Sonriso comes out and makes a stupid comment. He just did. He's just that amazing. Pay him money. He takes all major, minor, high school, and Little League credit cards. I'm a lilac fan, but white roses will suffice. Also, I _love_ chocolate-chip muffins.


	4. Victory of Stone

The Powers Within: Victory of Stone

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: General, Fantasy

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Daniel Ponille gets his power. He finds himself in the DigiWorld with two others. Same story.

A/N: There is actually a fold in this story. I'm slowly working more and more plot into these fics. By the time I'm finished with the entire series, it will be a lot better. Trust me.

* * *

Chapter 3: Victory of Stone

Daniel moans. He opens his eyes, seeing nothing but blurriness and feeling only dirt. When things finally come into focus, he looks around. _Where the heck am I?_, he thinks. Ten feet away, he sees a girl lying on the ground: Jessica Williams. He walks over and shakes her, "Jessica, you okay?"

She also moans, "Daniel? What happened?"

Daniel shakes his head, "I don't know. All I remember is this walkie-talkie thing. Then glowing… a flash, then here."

"Yeah, me too," she says, "Verbatim, in fact. Wait, you had a walkie-talkie thing too?" as she pulls it out from her pocket.

"This tan thing? It looks like a video game," holding it up.

"Tan? Mine's kind of purplish," she comments, showing hers.

Daniel and Jessica look to the sky. They see the sun. Then, something shoots across the sky and lands nearby. It looked like a green comet. When it crashes, the two run over. Exchanging glances, they run toward the impact site.

"Daniel, I don't see anything,"

"Wait, I'm looking over here... Jessica, over here! Look, it's Matt Jacobs." He kneels down beside Matt and Jessica joins him. Daniel shakes him, "Matt, Matt, can you hear me?" Matt comes to. Daniel looks up, listening.

_'So, Champion, have you finally arrived?'_

"Whoa, did you hear that?" he asks.

"Heard what?" Jessica asks, intent on Matt.

"I don't hear anything but the ringing in my ears," Matt said shaking his head as he sits up, "By the way, where are we? I thought it might be a good question to ask since I don't know."

"We don't know either," Jessica explains, her voice strained, "All we remember is these walkie-talkies falling from the sky…"

"This thing?" Matt says, showing his green-padded device.

_'Great and mighty, are you? The best? You are nothing here. There's nothing you can do here. And your friends lives are at stake, too.'_

Daniel looks to the right and left as Matt and Jessica discuss their arrival. The voice was female: soothing but cunning. He is distracted, but Matt rouses him, "Yo, man, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just hearing voices,"

"And James thought I was crazy with the sky falling,"

: : :

Daniel picks up a small stone, drops it on his foot and kicks it back into his hand, and throws it.

Matt walks up on him, "How's it going?"

"I'm stuck in a place that I don't know with no civilization in sight without any food."

"Look at the bright side."

"What bright side?" Daniel throws another rock.

"You've still got me!" Matt jokes, opening his arms.

Daniel feigns throwing a rock at him, and then throws it at a tree. It hits the trunk and bounces back. Daniel catches it right before it hits Jessica on the head.

"Whoa. Good catch. Why aren't you goalie when we play soccer?"

Daniel stomps on the ground, bouncing up a rock, and kicks it, hard. It lands squarely in a hole in the tree.

Jessica smiles, "Oh yeah. That's why."

Daniel throws a rock at the tree, hitting it again.

Matt, "That's two in a row. So, when you play baseball, why aren't you pitcher?"

With an unusually loud _whoosh_, Jessica launches a rock toward the tree, knocking down several fruits.

Daniels smiles, "That's why."

Matt picks up a fruit and asks, "Think it's edible?"

Daniel shakes his head, "I wouldn't risk it. Does it look like an edible fruit?"

Matt rolls his eyes, "It looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book." Indeed, the fruit is an odd bluish color. He hits against his thigh, trying to open it up. Daniel walks up to him, "Good show, my boy. With that, he grabs one of the fruits and sharply hits it against his thigh, and the fruit breaks along its fault lines. Jessica dips her pinkie in and tastes the juices, cringing, "Takes like sour apple,"

Matt audaciously takes a bite out of the fruit, puts on a pensive face. "Jessie, I think you're right," and he spits it out.

Suddenly, a rustle in the brush is heard. Daniel grabs Matt and holds him mouth shut. He puts his finger to his lips and shifts his eyes. He starts to back up toward a tree, and Jessica does likewise, in another direction. Another rustling is heard, this time, from behind Jessica, whose eyes widen and skin pales. She starts to tiptoe forward, but screams. She has good reason; a cat is suddenly in her arms, standing erect and poised to attack, its back to Jessica, who now faces the grass she was backing towards.

Out of the bushes comes a black figure. A panther-like animal, but with iron cuff around her neck, ankles, and tail. Two long, black spikes protrude from her shoulders and reach to the length of her back. And it speaks, "Here, Gatomon, Gatomon. Here kitty, kitty."

Jessica shrieks, "It talked, the panther talked," She nearly faints when the Gatomon in her arms talks back, "I've had enough, Begeramon, Lightning Claw." As the cat slashes, energy emits from her gloved paws.

"I don't think so," replies Begeramon calmly, "Leaping Strike," The panther leaps into the air, strikes the Gatomon, and sends her into the brush far away. Daniel exhales hard. He knows that voice. It was the same one mocking him just hours ago. Begeramon jumps again, this time at Daniel, "Champion," she purrs, pouncing on the tan-haired boy. Daniel falls with the force, but uses the momentum to launch the large cat off of him.

"Good move, Champion, but can you handle this?!" She pounces again, claws flared. Daniel, his pupils shrinking to small dots in fields of airy blue, closes his eyes, grabs the paws of the panther, and tries to throw her down. Unsuccessful, he stumbles, landing the cat near him.

Enraged, Begeramon, slashes his face. Daniel doesn't react, only emitting a defeated moan. She slashes his opposite shoulder. Daniel rolls, but gets a good kick to Begeramon's face. She slashes at him again, but he claws strike a brown, translucent dome that now surround the unconscious Daniel.

He regains consciousness. He starts to glow with a tan light. When the light subsides, a new person emerges. Daniel's skin is now deeply tanned and hardened. His wounds have healed, leaving only scars. His hair is a muddy brown color. A cloud of dust encircles him inside the dome, floating to the ground around him.

Begeramon, frightened, leaps to attack him. Daniel swings his arm hard, pounding into the panther. It emits a bone-crushing sound, as if the panther had been hit by a stone club. Begeramon begins to run, but is stopped by a wall of rock rising from the earth. She scrambles, trying to get around it, but is blocked every time by a new uprising of rock. Giving up, she poises herself in an attacking position.

Daniel laughs heavily, "No, Begeramon, you were wrong before. I am not nothing. I am strong, rock-solid, like the earth you stand upon. You dared to mess with that virtue, and the price is defeat. Feel the wrath of the Champion." A golden glow emits from his chest; a small tab inserts itself into the holder.

As Daniel glows again, he outstretches his arms within his aura of a sandstorm. "Victory of Stone!" he bellows, his voice firm and loud. A sandstorm forms around him, picking up even some smallish rocks, building to a climax before it lunges forwards at the panther-like creature. This storm strikes Begeramon. She doubles over, screaming, barely visible in the sandstorm. When the storm quiets, a stone statue remains.

Daniel lowers his arms, still glowing, and collapses to the ground.

: : :

Daniel wakes up, feeling comparable to the way he did when he first entered this strange world. "Jessica, he's coming to!" Matt calls excitingly. Daniel looks up. It's late in the afternoon. The sun has moved.

"Dude, what happened?" Daniel asks, breathing deeply.

"I don't know. You all of a sudden were glowing and you had the dome around you."  
  
"Yeah, I remember that. What happened to what's-her-face...? Begeramon?."

Jessica chimes in, "I don't know. I think you turned her to stone."

"The whole Medusa thing?"

She smiles, "Yeah, and oh yeah, your hair. Whoa, Matt, look at his eyes."

"Huh? Guy?"

Matt comments to him, "You've got this piece of hair just hanging there. It's brown, mud brown. And your eyes —we just noticed them— they're still blue, but they have specks of tan in them, and there's a tan ring around each one. Whatever happened to you, or whatever you did, it did stuff to your appearance."

"What's this thing?" Jessica asks, holding up the golden pendent around his neck.

"It's a tag and crest," Daniel mutters mindlessly.

Matt remarks, confused, "Wha....? How'd you know?"

"I'm not sure. I just know, as if I just remembered or something. Sounds crazy, I know."

"Look at the pretty emblem inside," Jessica comments, admiring it.

The inside tab is tan-colored. The symbol is a circle, with three long pointed triangles pointing downward from the circle, with an elongated dart shape seated atop the circle. "The Crest of Ascendancy," Daniel says, looking at it.

"Remembered again?" Matt asked.

Daniel just nods. He feels different. Full of the glory like the kind he gets when he wins a soccer game. He feels powerful, his strength well focused, omnipotent even. He picks up a rock on the ground. Standing up his bounces it on his shoe a couple of times before returning it to his hand. He feels the rock's hardness and it reminds him of himself.

He throws it at the Begeramon statue and breaks off an ear.

Matt laughs, "Jessica may be the pitcher, but you're the relief pitcher, right?"

Daniel grabs another rock, a little bit larger this time, and pitches it at the statue with his whole arm. It hits her rocky shoulder, breaking off a foreleg and sending the rest toppling. It dedigitalizes.

Daniel smiles, "Most definitely."

_I am the Champion._

: : :

A/N: Yay! Three parts and a prologue. I'm doing good. Now I need to post it. Well, if you're reading this, it's obviously posted, but because I'm writing right now, it's obviously not posted while I'm writing it. Oh, I'll just shut up.

(Sonriso) - I have to talk again? Gee, I need a pay raise. Okay, okay, I hope you enjoyed Creedog's latest rendition of _Rocky_. Get it? Haha, it's funny. Yes, it is. Oh, come here, boy! I'm gonna teach you some manners!


	5. Reality of Illusion

The Powers Within: Reality of Illusion

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: General, Fantasy

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Same as previous stories, only this time, Jessica gets her power.

A/N: It's getting pretty formatted. In the next two series, I'm definitely going to try for a different style. These are entirely too systematic. I have "The AntiCrests" but it's pretty formatted, and worse than this. I may turn out that I completely redo it. It may be that I just ditch it and write "Quest of DigiDestiny." I think that name with change. Anyway, it will be anything but formatted. It will have story and an overarching plot and everything! Yeah, I know. That should be basic to all stories.

* * *

Chapter 4: Reality of Illusion

Jessica sighs in the evening dusk. She watches as the sun slowly sets in the west, causing strange shadows and warped vision. She wonders if the tall boy on her right was a warped image, or whether the world around her was. She is in a world where nothing is familiar. She is in a group with two other boys, her age, and none of them knows where they are. And Daniel Ponille has recently changed dramatically. He seems to have gotten strange magical powers.

Ever since, he has had a dark brown lock of hair that stands out across his forehead. It doesn't move in the wind. It's heavy and firm. Also, the airy blue color of his eyes is now sprinkled with a dusty color. His skin also seems more tan than usual. He became very tan when his power mysteriously came to him, but now he's just a little bit more than usual. His personality changed too. Before, he was humorous, light-spirited, but now his personality is heavy, firm, and strong.

Daniel is now looking at what he calls his "tag and crest." The golden pendent that hangs from his neck contains a small tan tab. The tab inside was supposed to represent Ascendancy. _Ascendancy, to become greater._ Jessica sighs and rubs her eyes. She's tired. It's not that late, but they have been walking a while. _Why are we walking? What are we expecting to find?_

"Daniel. Matt. I'm kinda sleepy. Do you think we can take a rest?"

The boys look at each other and exchange glances. "Sure," offered Matt, "No need to go any farther, we don't have to be there at any set time. There really is no 'there' anyway."

So the group settles down as it starts to get dark. They build a fire and Matt stares into it, his face shaking. "Matt, you okay?"

He sighs, "It's just… we're in this strange place. A wilderness. No sign of civilization. And with whatever happened to Daniel, I don't know if I'm dreaming or what. If I am, it's a nightmare. How do we get home?" He wasn't crying, but his eyes are moist.

Holding back her own tears, she consoles, "I know. I miss my family. This is scary. Monsters. It _is_ a nightmare. I have no idea what's going on. We're going to get back somehow. I don't know how, but it's not worth it if we don't have faith, I guess."

Daniel, whose face is hard, "She's right. I may not show it. Whatever happened to me, it hardened me. In more ways that one." He crushes a stone in his hand, and in response to the amazed looks, "Oh, it's just sandstone. I'm not _that_ strong. We've already seen that this is no natural occurrence. Whatever brought us here is going to have to let us go back. For now, we should sleep. I'll keep watch for awhile."

Lying her head on her arms, Jessica is glad for the warmth of the fire. She soon falls asleep, and begins to dream. Jessica dreams about the strange creature Daniel had fought, then about her fighting one too. She dreams of Chris VanDrey, who Daniel and Matt had been talking about a lot. He is doing something. She drifts awake, remembering only something about water. A voice has woken her. Jessica can almost swear she hears the caustic voice in the wind.

_'Yes, it is the Sister. She who is supposed to care for her loved ones. She does not care.'_

Her eyes get used to the dark, seeing that Daniel had since fallen asleep. Matt, too. It's not too chilly for her to take a walk. She passes by a small pond, where she sees a horse. She looks at it from behind a tree. No, it's a… _unicorn_. A small one. Its fur is light azure and has a spiraling horn. Also on its forehead is a small glass-looking hemisphere.

She steps forward, stepping on a stick. The unicorn turns its head, filling Jessica with fear. The unicorn's eyes are deep-set into its head. Jessica can't tell if it even had seen her. It spoke, "It's all right, Sister, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Nicormon."

"Sister? I'm not your sister."

"No, you're not _my_ sister. You are _the_ Sister. The Sister of Care."

"I was woken by something that called me 'the Sister.' It said I hadn't been caring or something."

"That is the voice of your power. Don't worry. If it says you have failed, that means it's the wrong time." said the strange unicorn.

"Oh," she replies, bewildered.

"By the way, Sister, where are your friends? Aren't the Champion, the Caretaker, and the Defender with you? I have felt their power."

"The Champion? That's what that evil monster called Daniel. It gave him a strange power. But who are the Caretaker and the Defender?"

"You do not know the Caretaker? If you are a Sister to anyone, it's him."

"Uh, no. No brother here."

"The Caretaker. With hair that mocks the color black and eyes of darkened gold. With the power of airy sea and he protects those in need."

"Uh, no, that doesn't sound like any brother of mine," responding to his strange riddle.

"Can you take me to see the Champion?"

"I guess, but he's sleeping,"

"That is fine,"

Jessica leads Nicormon to their makeshift camp. She shows him the camp, and Daniel and Matt. "Yes, this is the Champion. I can feel his power. I do not sense power from this one though."

"What about me?"

"You are not changed, but I sense power from you. Great power."

Jessica turns away, but turns back to ask a question, then screams. Nicormon is on his back hooves, his horn glowing, about to trample Daniel. "Nicormon! No!" Her digivice flares by her side. As Nicormon comes down, hitting nothing. He attacks, "Horn Spiralisis!" striking Daniel's figure. Great mound of dirt and rock went through Daniel as if he were a mirage.

"What?! Where is the Champion?"

"I don't know. Can't you see him? Or is it all an illusion?"

Nicormon turns around. Within a magenta-colored aura is Jessica. Her digivice glowing, releasing a light purple colored tab. The golden glow around her neck seals the crest in place. A similar violet glow envelopes Jessica. When the glow subsides, she stands in a long, loose purple gown, with long sleeves that hide her arms. Her hair is streaked with shades of violet, purple, pink, and fuchsia. He eyes are blurry white.

"So, Nicormon, it was you. You spoke with deception. Deception of evil. You have blinded yourself from good. I shall now blind you from sight." Nicormon yells as his eyes glow pink.

The unicorn bucks, screaming, "What? The Sister! She's everywhere. Hundreds of her. And the Champion, too! What's going on? The sun and the moon both in the sky! Everything's up-side-down!" he falls to the ground, trying to gallop. Jessica glows again, "Reality of Illusion!" her voice echoing.

Wavy, random patterns of violet and magenta spiral through the air. All of them strike the crouching unicorn. He yells in pain before his body disintegrates into data. Jessica faints as she glows once more.

: : :

Jessica wakes up peacefully. She opens her eyes. She looks around for Matt and Daniel. They're nowhere to be seen. She looks down, sighing, then back up. There they are. Just standing there, not moving. "Wha...?" and her friends became wavy and disappeared.

"Jessica!" Daniel calls from behind her, "What the heck? I saw myself standing right there a minute ago."

"You... or him... just disappeared." she pauses, then, in realization, "I think I may have created a mirage with my power."

"Whoa, that's crazy," Matt says, walking up, "Oh, yeah, her hair. You've changed, too."

"Have I? I did... there's a purple strand of hair in my eyes." Jessica pushes it behind her ear, only to have it slide right back in front of her eye. After a few swipes, she gives up.

"Yeah, that strand in your eye just kind of sits there." Daniel explained. "We turned you over onto your side, and it slid down your neck in front of your eye."

"Defying the laws of gravity. Speaking of which, look at her eyes." Matt utters, in awe.

"Jessica, your irises are like purplish pink, and they shade into the. The pupils look funny, too. There's this wavy refection in it."

Jessica feels different. She has strange emotions. No fear. She felt stealthy and cunning. But also caring. She felt a deeper friendship with the boys with her and also an empty space, as if she was missing a relative, a close relative. She smiles, sensing a soon meeting with this person. _I am his Sister._

_I am the Sister._

: : :

A/N: Okay, I had to do reasonably little on this one. I did add in a section, which won't mean anything to you unless you read it the first time. Don't ask me why I spend so much time on these. I have homework. Anyway, for my lost digifans.

(Sonriso) - These are the kind of fun stories that make you want to fall asleep listening to the _X-Files _theme. And wait up screaming in a cold sweat. I've always enjoyed a nice cold sweat, haven't you?


	6. Deed of Creature

The Powers Within: Deed of Creature

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: General, Fantasy

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Phillip Maxx gets his power.

A/N: It's pretty formatted, but as I looked through my notes on the rewriting of this series, I noticed that I've added a plot element to each, with some additional touches. It still not up to the level of the series I based this on, but it's closer. Summaries are still about the same.

* * *

Chapter 5: Deed of Creature

Phillip Maxx pushes himself away from the ground. He looks around to get his bearings, but there are none. There were a lot of tropical trees around, also some more common trees and shrubs. Familiar with the story of the DigiDestined, he thinks, _What__ happened? This crazy D-3 thing sent me here. Yay! I'm a DigiDestined!_ "Okay, where my digimon?" he comments indignantly.

"Hello?" It is a girl's voice.

He calls back, searching for the origin of the voice. A hundred yards into the brush, a dark-haired girl pulls herself out of the leaves. "Hey, do you know where we are?"

"We're in the DigiWorld, I think," Phillip replied, almost recognizing the girl.

"The what?"

"DigiWorld. It's a parallel universe with digital monsters: digimon!"

Justine rolled her eyes, _This__ kid's a loon_, she thinks. "Okay, now what?"

"Well, we're each supposed to have this little digimon monster following us around. And then we save the world!"

"Tell me, do you go to a psychiatrist?"

"Very funny," Phillip replies.

"Who are you? I think I've seen you before," Justine inquires.

"Well, I'm Phillip Maxx. I live in Raytonville, Georgia. I go to Westwood Jr. High there."

Justine's brown eyes light up, "Me too. I go to school with you. You must be a ninth grader."

"Yeah,"

_'Ah, the Patron.__ He comes to help others. But he can only think for himself.'_

"Whoa, did you hear that?" Phillip asks.

"Hear what?" Justine replies, confused.

"That voice. It's deep and… growly. It sounded like a man... or a digimon!"

"There he goes with that digimon thing again," Justine mumbles to herself, "I'm thirsty. Do you know where any water is?"

"Well, not really, but let's go find some." Phillip remarks.

Justine smiles lightly. The two walk through the woods in search of a pond or a lake or something. Phillip tries to tell her about digimon, "…and T.K. and Kari… well, Kari didn't come till later because she was sick or something, but she finally got back. Well, this was before… well, not before, during Myotismon… I did tell you about Myotismon, didn't I?"

"Uh… Phillip, I don't know. You've said 'mon' so much I don't know what a Mytoesmon is anyway."

"Sorry."

After about half an hour without success in finding water, Justine reluctantly comments, "It's okay, I don't really need any,"

"Well, sit down, I'll keep looking. I'm thirsty anyhow. Besides, a Scout is Helpful."

After Phillip had looked around in the woods near Justine for a while, he heard the voice again.

_'Yes, Patron, leave the maiden alone. You can't help when you're not there. Ha ha ha.'_

Phillip looks around. He sees nothing that would indicate where the voice was coming from. He heard a scream from what definitely sounded like Justine. 'Okay, a Scout is Helpful... and Loyal, and Trustworthy, and Brave.' He exhales and sprints toward the sound of Justine's screaming.

"Hey, Justine! I'm coming, I'm coming!" He runs so quickly, he almost falls into a large hole. Stopping to look at it, he finds Justine trapped inside of it. Exhaling, Phillip reaches down his hand. He's not even close to reaching her. He turns around to grab a vine. Feeling resistance, he looks up, following the vine to its source, which happens to be the pointed mouth of a furry, frog-like creature. _Gizamon_ Phillip scans the clearing and discovers himself and the pitted Justine surrounded by a herd of Gizamon and a large ape-like creature. The ape reaches his arm into the hole, his arms four times as long as Phillip's, pulling out the squirming Justine. She yelps, screams, and whacks at the ape's arm with a frail branch that she grabs on her way up. Phillip grabs a rather large branch, eluding the leap of a Gizamon and takes a hard swing at the ape's flank.

The creature cries out in pain, then retaliates with a firm sweep with his armored arm, sending Phillip flying into a tree and smashing the branch to pieces. Phillip, his courage built up from his fantasy of being a DigiDestined, pulls his aching body up, and grabs a larger branch, taking a home-run swipe at the ape's kneecap. The primate moans in pain before roaring, "Patron, you are seriously overstepping your boundary. You are far too weak and frail to defeat IronGorimon. Blasting Fist!" The gorilla-like creature's fist shoots a ball of energy toward Phillip, who takes full force of it. Justine screams at the attack on her newly befriended hero.

"Only one problem, though," a voice resembling Phillip's, only deeper, speaks. IronGorimon turns to see Phillip standing in a grayish-white aura. "You are wrong. I am the Patron. I help others. And now I am going to help destroy you." His digivice, beaming with light, emits a crest, which was secured by a golden glow around his neck. A mercury-colored glow engulfs him. The form expands to a gargantuan size.

When the aura subsides, a huge creature stands in its place. The beast is over ten feet tall, with mounds of marble-colored fur. It has four legs, and resembles a dog somewhat. It has a wide upper torso and long, bear-like claws. Its eyes, barely visible, are slitted.

IronGorimon, terrified, orders the herd of Gizamon to attack the beast. They hurl themselves at it, biting and clawing. None get through the thick fur and the Patron swings his forelegs sending many flying into rocks and trees. Many dedigitalize; others retreat in terror into the grasses.

When only IronGorimon is left, he attacks, "Blasting Fist!" The Patron once again takes full force of the attack, but this time, the blast is lost in the mounds of fur, which sway indifferently. The fur glows strongly, and the beast roars, "Deed of Creature!"

A translucent blast of white and yellow entities came from the furry beast. IronGorimon is struck on every side, also smashing the ground as he falls. A small crater is soon all that is left of him. The beast glows again, shrinks, and collapses as the short, lanky Phillip once again.

: : :

Phillip awakes in the late afternoon. Justine is sitting against a tree next to him. "Phillip, you're awake. Do you know what happened to you?"

"I remember something weird, like turning into something big and furry. Like a huge dog or something."

"Yeah, you defeated IronGorimon and saved both of us. I'd say you're a hero." Justine smiled. "And I'm severely confused."

Phillip sighs, "Well, this is the DigiWorld. Crazy stuff happens here." When Justine just nods, he inquires, "You still think I'm crazy?"

"If you are, I am, too. I'm seeing all the monsters. I'm stuck in some funky world. If you say it's the DigiWorld, your guess is no worse than mine is. And, oh yeah, I think your graying."

"What?"

"Well, you have all these gray strands of hair, but they're a weird gray. They're really thick too. You also have gray ring around your eyes."

"Whoa, weird, I've changed."

"Tell me about it,"

"I am the Patron,"

: : :

A/N: Okay, these are starting to work out. Little by little, they're improving. Well, anyway, I'm not going to require reviews as I did the first time. Since it's mostly already written, it's just going back and working on it. The third story's not quite written, yet, though. And they're a bunch of work to be done on the second story. Encouragement is accepted.

(Sonriso) - A big furry monster? Tell me, have you been taking hallucinogenic drugs?


	7. Enigma of Star

The Powers Within: Enigma of Star

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, General

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Justine Reyes gets her power. And that's it.

A/N: I'm feeling really bad about the monotony of these fics. I just can't really think up a bunch of good storylines to spice these up. The second series should mix things up a bit. Just a bit. The third, I'm hoping to absolutely let go.

* * *

Chapter 6: Enigma of Star

The sun sets on Justine and Phillip. Phillip is looking at his crest. He calls it the Crest of Servitude. The off-white tab shows two columns with a circle in between them below a down-facing semicircle. He is the Patron, but never calls himself that. It makes her wonder. _What gave him these special powers? Might I get powers too? How does he know all this, but still is often wrong?_

Justine's brow wrinkles, _Probably__ because I'm in a world where I know nothing._ She starts to wonder about voices. Phillip told her that he heard a voice before he got his power. It turned out to be the voice of IronGorimon, mocking him. _Will I hear a voice? Am I destined to have powers?_

But it is late; Justine is tired. She lies down to rest when...

_'If it isn't the Inquirer, probably wondering her silly head of about nothing.'___

"Hello?" Justine mumbles, erecting herself.

"What is it, Justine?" Phillip asks. He is leaning against the back of tree, fooling with a stick.

"I... I... heard a voice. A woman. Gossiping."

"Hmmm, you may soon get your power. I really don't know."

"I thought you knew everything about this world,"

"I only thought I did. The DigiWorld does look like this, kinda. And these creatures do seem to be digimon, but I had no idea about the powers I got."

"You mean reading animal's minds?"

"I can't really read them. I can just kind of get the idea what they're thinking."

"Okay..."

"Phillip, do you think our families are wondering where we are?"

Phillip shrugs indifferently, "I dunno. On _Digimon_, time moved really slow. Or really fast. Whichever, they were only gone like a few minutes or hours or something in the Real World, but it felt like months in the DigiWorld." Phillip looks away, listening, moving his hands across his chest.

Justine sighs, frustrated. She closes her eyes. Suddenly a fleeting image flashed across her mind. Orange, like fire, but a person behind it. _I think it was a girl._ She tries to recreate the image, but it fails her. She felt something about it. Something special.

_'Not wanting to know anything, Inquirer. You don't question serious things, or anything at that matter.'_

"I do too!" she yells at the voice, annoyed.

Phillip gives her a strange look. "The voice. It's being mean to me. It's... it's... Never mind; I'm not going anywhere with this. Goodnight, Phillip."

"Night, Justine."

: : :

_'Inquirer, awake!'___

Justine bolts up in her sleep. "Who's there?" she whispers.

_Don't you know? Why do you ask? It is said that you know._

"Know what?" she replies, looking around. Phillip shifts in his sleep. _Where is that voice coming from?_

_'Why don't you look...'_

"HERE!" the voice shrieks. Justine screeches, awaking Phillip, who is slowing regaining focus. A tall, female humanoid digimon stands, or hovers more like it, in front of Justine. She reaches down, grabs Justine, and starts to fly into the air. She is tall, her skin bluish, her tattered gown sickly yellow, her eyes blood red. She has long, black, feathery wings.

"Justine!" Phillip yells.

"It's worthless, Patron, you cannot fly!"

"Who are you?" Justine yelled angrily.

"You are about to be killed, why do you care?"

"Why do you wish to kill me? And you didn't answer my first question,"

"Curiosity is what killed the cat,"

"Do I look like a cat?"

"My, you are a questioning little girl."

Justine's digivice glows meekly night purple. A whiteness briefly engulfs her eyes. "Nieblakwomon, right? And the new alliance of evil digimon is being threatened by the new set of DigiDestined, right?"

"How did you know?"

"It is said that I know. Ask, and thou shall receive," At that, Justine's digivice explodes with blue-purple light. Nieblakwomon drops her, but Justine floats back within a night purple-colored aura. She glows with the same colored light before it withdraws from her.

Justine floats, now clad in a long, night-purple gown. It has no sleeves and extends far beyond her feet. Her skin is very pale. Her hair is long, down to her thighs, and of a similar color as her dress, with white streaks. Her eyes completely white and glowing. From the purple light of her digivice comes a similarly colored tag. It disappears with the golden glow upon her neck. Her voice echoes loud and distant. "Nieblackwomon, you hinder my wonder of the world and do so just for the powers of evil. When the stars are the limit, no one is strong enough to defeat creativity. Feel the wrath of Wonder."

The glow of Justine's body forms a small, white sphere in her hand. "Enigma of Star!" The sphere shot from her hand like a comet, striking Nieblakwomon in the chest. As small white sparks flew from the impact point, Nieblackwomon breaks down into data, dedigitalizing. With a high pitched screech, she is gone.

Justine gasps before falling to the ground. The sound of Phillip awkwardly catching her is the last sound that registers in her mind.

: : :

When Justine awakes, it was still dark, but the dawn is near. Phillip sleeps on a tree near her. When she rises, Phillip wakes from the light sleep, his gray strands showing like silver in the passing moonlight.

"You're awake, Justine, or Inquirer,"

"Am I...?"

"Changed," guessed Phillip, "Yeah, you gotta long, white steak in your hair. And from what I can tell from my night vision, you eyes are now deep purple. There is a small white speck in your iris…"

"Like a lone star…"

"Yep."

She looked at her crest. As purple as her eyes with a symbol inside. It was a twinkling four-pointed star with two half-arches holding it up. Justine turned to look at the white tress on her right side. Suddenly, she closes her eyes. "Uh,"

"Justine?"

"So that's what it's like to have a vision. I saw a green flash of light comes out from the trees. It was yesterday, I think."

"It could be another DigiDestined. Let's go look."

"All right, catch up to you in a sec."

Justine sighed, closed her eyes, looked up, opened them, and took a long look at the brightening night sky. Straight above her, she saw a lone, twinkling star.

_I am the Inquirer._

: : :

A/N: Hmm, this might get good. I might get so good, I'll finally have to publish something! Glory, laud, and honor!

(Sonriso) - "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." What? Whatta ya mean it ain't karaoke night?


	8. Might of Forest

The Powers Within: Longevity of Forest

by Creedogmon

by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, General

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Matt gets his power.

A/N: It's getting kind of tedious doing these Author Notes when I don't have anything else to say. Anyway, I wish I could put more in the summary, but not a lot happens. Read the story now. You're waiting your time up here.

* * *

Chapter 7: Longevity of Forest

Matt, silent in the passing dusk, watches as Jessica stares at her crest intently as she walks. The fuchsia-colored tab inside shows and almond shape beneath an arc and above two semicircles encasing two attached circles. She sighs and looks up at Matt.

"So, Matt, what do you think? Are you getting a power?" Jessica prompts.

Matt turns away, looking at the ground, shrugging his shoulders. "Me? I don't know. I mean if both you two got them, I guess I'm highly likely to. How do you get them?" He turns back, his brown bangs shifting.

"I don't know. My guess is it's one of those things that you're kinda just destined to get." Daniel muses.

Somewhat testily, Matt comments, "Well, if I'm _destined_ to be here, why shouldn't I be destined to get a power?"

Daniel paused, "Destiny's tricky. We'll call it God's will if you're more comfortable."

Matt too pauses, "God created the heavens and the earth. Is this earth?"

Daniel looks around, "God created only man to be wise. The creatures here speak. Maybe not, but where else would we be?"

"In a dream?" Jessica suggests.

"Maybe. But it's quite a long dream. And as long as we're here, let's make the most of it. We're fighting monsters, let's kick their butts." Daniel raises his hand for a high-five, which Matt returns, though rolling in his eyes in the process.

"Okay, but how do I know when I'm going to get a power?"

Jessica responds, "You usually hear a voice, as you've heard us comment about."

"Okay," Matt starts, "Do you think we're the only ones?"

Daniel answers, "I don't know. I mean we must have powers for some reasons. Fighting off these monsters may be one of them. And from what I can tell, this is a big place."

"'Cause I'm thinking. You know how Chris VanDrey just disappeared, with that little girl?"

"You think he maybe here?"

"Who knows? But only if…" Jessica answers.

"If this isn't a dream. He wasn't kidnapped or whatever." Matt finished.

: : :

The trio settles down as the dusk finishes. They sit down near a small bluff with a forest on it. Matt and Daniel build a small fire. "You know, guys, our parents are going to be worried sick." Matt comments.

"What do you propose we do?" Jessica asks, "It's not like there's any phones around here."

Daniel suggests, "It's not like we can't try."

Holding her head on her hand, Jessica looks back, "A whole lotta good walking around is doing us."

"A whole lotta good sitting down is doing us."

With that, Jessica inhaled sharply, closing her eyes, exhausted. "It recharges us. When we used our powers, it drained us."

"Really?"

Matt sighs, "Daniel, at full strength, you collapse after attacking with the power. We rest. Jessica, I know it looks like the wilderness, but this ain't earth. What we've seen so far is of no help to us. The more ground we cover, the more likely we are to find something we need."

"Or stuff we don't, like more monsters." Jessica snips, breathing heavily.

Daniel sits up, "We've both defeated monsters, Jess. I say, bring them on. I am the Champion."

Matt mediates, "Champions are only champions till they're defeated."

"No challengers yet." Daniel stares down Matt, then looks toward Jessica, who is drifting to sleep. Matt returns his stern look. Daniel smiles, "No challengers. I guess that's a good thing. I've had enough monsters for one day." Matt returns his smile and they bump their fists together.

_'Well, Magistrate, what are you going to do? You friends are already powerful and you are not. How do you expect to be an ally to them?'_

Matt goes pale, "Did you guys hear that?"

Daniel lowers his eyebrows, "A voice,"

"Yeah, you heard it?"

"No, but if you did, watch out. I may still be waning after my whole Champion change, and I may not be able to call upon my power. If I can call on it again. And by the look of Jessica, she doesn't look like she's ready for a battle either." Jessica is sleeping against a rock, mumbling about her mother or brother or something.

"All right. I'll be on the lookout. Sleep, Daniel, I've got the watch for awhile."

Matt expects to fall asleep, but is unable to, tired and fearful of an attack. Matt looks to the two sleeping forms, the Champion of Ascendancy and Sister of Care. _What am I? The Victim of Being-Saved? No, the Accidental-Arrival of No-Power-Yet. _Matt grabs his green-paneled digivice, and looks at the digivices of Daniel and Jessica. He then turns to the soft glowing of their crests beneath their shirts. Matt grabs the breast of his shirt. _Hey, man, they didn't have necklaces with crests two days ago either. And they didn't know when they would get power, or that they would at all._ Matt closes his eyes and exhales deeply, trying to wipe the sleepiness from his body. _I miss caffeinated beverages._

_'It's okay, Magistrate, sleep. You have already failed at perseverance for tonight. Relax.'_

The voice makes Matt uncomfortable. It sounds untrustworthy. He wills to stay awake until the source of the voice presents itself. He'd eluded death twice in the twenty-four hours, and now is not the time to start playing his odds. His eyes, however, are heavy. He can't quite make something out in the distance, the light from the slowly dying fire fading. Though an occasional flame would spurt up, only the coals remained. Matt stretches. "It's going to be a long night," he tells himself.

Sleep comes to him for only a few seconds when a huge blast hit near Jessica. Her violet aura instinctively protects her, but she is unsurprisingly scared senseless. Both Daniel and Jessica try to call upon their powers, but nothing more than a weak glow from their crests emerges. "Go ahead, Magistrate, run away, you're still strong," comes the familiar voice.

Matt turns to look at the source of the voice. A monstrously large bug-like creature stands there. It screeches, yet unlike the voice in Matt's head. It is dangerous just the same. Matt ponders his options, _Run? Hide? Stand? Stay?_

He looks back at his two allies, straining to regain their energy. Yet neither has begun to be enveloped by their colored auras. Realizing he is the only thing in between his friends and his enemies, he looks forward and refuses to move, trying not to shake as he faces the enormous bug. His digivice glows. _Well, if I'm getting a power, it might as well be now._ Eyelids clenched shut, Matt rushes forward toward the insect, praying for some kind of miracle. Mid-dash, Matt is enveloped in a green, spherical protection aura, shielding him from the Kuwagamon's clamping pincers, which opens his eyes. He continues to rush forward, under the bug, dives, and rolls to the side. A small tab forms from within the digivice, and, like the others, inserts itself during a golden glow on Matt chest as he gets back up, on the left side of the monster.

A forest-green glow envelops Matt. As it dims, Matt's body is changed. His now-browned skin has a rough, bark-like texture. His thick hair is now a mess of stringy grass. "So, beetle-brain, you don't believe that I am worthy to be the Magistrate? You don't believe I have the tenacity to do so? Well, I got an answer for you. Wrong!"

A smaller bug, though still human-sized, flies up from behind Kuwagamon's shoulder. A vine shoots up from the ground and wraps itself around the smaller insectoid. The vine slams the bug onto the ground. It screams and struggles, "No, Magistrate, you will not defeat me. For I am Retalimon!" The screech is familiar in Matt's mind. The bug is tall, has six legs, all armed with blades, which it starts to cut through the vines with. Its exoskeleton is like a suit of armor.

"First order of business. Even the odds. Dozens of thick vines shot up around Kuwagamon. Each one wraps around a different part of the Kuwagamon. Eventually, the monster, covered in ever-tightening vines, dedigitalizes, the digital matter spraying through the cracks in the vines.

Retalimon, now cut free, doesn't get far before Matt calls upon his power. "Might of Forest!" Vines and small, crooked trees shoot up all around Retalimon, forming a thick knot around the bug, as a huge beam of green light from Matt's aura strikes him. The askew growth falls to the ground, shattering the knot, followed by an explosion of digital matter. The green light again covers Matt, bringing him back to normal, before he collapses to the ground.

: : :

Matt awakes next to a small, but roaring fire. He groans and sees Daniel, seated on a log, as his eyes refocused. "What happened?"

"Well, to say the least, you finally got your power. Kudos."

"Really? What do I look like?"

Jessica, entering from within the forest, answers him, "A bright green lock of hair, and your eyes now have almond-shaped green dots on either side of your iris." Matt looks into her eyes, seeing his wavy reflection. Indeed, there is a leaf-green lock of hair and a small green dot in both of his silvery-blue irises.

As the sun rises, a faint "Hello!" can be heard in the distance.

Amid surprised gazes, Daniel speaks first, "Let's check it out."

"Yeah, one minute. I'm still a little weak."

"Suit yourself, man," as Daniel sprints towards the bluff.

Matt smiles at his new crest. _The Crest of Tenacity. _The emblem is of a leafless, branch-less tree trunk, a vertical almond shape in the middle, resting above two triangles near the roots on a forest green background.

_I am the Magistrate._

: : :

A/N: Ooh, ooh. We're getting closer and closer to the end. Yay!

(Sonriso) - You know, without me, Sonriso, wouldn't these stories just be so much more… boring? C'mon, what do you think? Ariee, talk to me, girl. Tab, my best bud, what would the CPoC be without me?

A/N: Hold it. You want Ariee and Tab to read these? Are you crazy?


	9. We Are Not Alone

The Powers Within: We Are Not Alone

by Creedogmon

by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, General

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The three groups find that they are not the only ones. I think we're reaching a climax, sort of.

A/N: Just to fill you in: Christopher (me), Virginia, and Katmondu disappeared Sunday afternoon. I get my power, then Katmondu later that day. The next morning, Matt, Daniel, and Jessica disappear. Daniel gets his power, then Jessica that night. The next day, Phillip and Justine disappear. Phillip gets his power, then Matt that evening, and Justine that night. It is Wednesday now, in both worlds.

* * *

Chapter 8: We Are Not Alone

I walk through the forest with the sleeping Virginia in my arms. I swear she sleeps from sundown to sunup. In front of me, guarding us, is my cat, Katmondu, the loyal Defender. And I, Christopher VanDrey, am the protecting Caretaker. We have been given these names by the DigiWorld. Apparently, we are here to save it. We have been walking for almost three days, luckily without the sight of seriously evil digimon.

The three of us come across a bluff. It's covered in vines, but a patch had been cleared across a circle of emblazoned symbols. I recognize two: Katmondu's and my own. There are seven more. I take my notebook out of my backpack and draw each one. There's an eerie feeling in the air, but I figure it must be the strange appearance of unusual symbols in the dawn light.

My head buried in my notebook, I stop suddenly, as does Katmondu. Laughter. Voices. "Katmondu, do you hear that?" "Reow," he says curiously. "Let's go. Quietly." We step lightly, our ear open.

: : :

"C'mon, Justine, let's go!" Phillip cries.

"I'm coming," she says in response, still a bit weak from her transformation. She jogs along, breathing heavily.

Phillip stops, "Shhh, just a sec; I'm going to go take a look first," he whispers, motioning for her to pause. Justine gladly sits down.

: : :

"Guys, I'm sure I saw something happening in the air. A big purple flash yesterday night. And you heard the voices." Matt comments.

"Wait, I hear something. Quiet, it might be another monster." Daniel volunteers.

He walks slowly through the woods toward the sound. He turns around, stepping back quietly, checking behind him. Phillip also walks toward a sound that he heard. He turns around to check to make sure nothing's following him. He steps back when he runs into something. He jumps around. Daniel hits something, too. He, like Phillip turns around. They come face to face with… each other.

"Phillip! You honkin' scared me." Daniel cries, grabbing his chest; he pauses, "Oh, yeah, and by the way, what are you doing here?"

Jessica comments, almost calmly as she walks up, "Daniel, his hair. Did you get a power, too?"

"A power? Oh, you mean the big colored shield... thing and you turn into a big monster. And blow up a digimon? And a voice that only you hear. And that's the digimon that you blow up. And you get a crest? And…" Phillip is forced to stop from lack of breath.

Jessica pauses and whispers aside to Daniel, "What's a digimon?"

Daniel whispers back, "I have no idea. Phillip's a little crazy like that." He turns to Phillip, "Wait a second. Big monster? I didn't turn into any kind of monster. I sorta turned to stone or something. But the rest sounds right." he turns and calls back, "Hey, Matt, get over here. It's Phillip Maxx!"

Phillip lightly hits his head, "Oh yeah, there's a eighth grader named Justine Reyes with me. I'd better go get her. Tell her everything's okay." He runs away without another word.

: : :

"Katmondu, look over there… no, over there… no, don't look at me," I tell my cat, "Yes, do you hear anything?" His ears rotate and he listens. He meows curiously. I tell him, "Well, then go find them, Mr. Brave Defender." He promptly jumps off the path down a forested, gentle incline. _I guess I got what I asked for._ I start to skid down myself, keeping Virginia more or less balanced.

: : :

"Awesome, you all have powers?" Justine asks. "So I'm not some kind of freak." The group studies the hair and eye colors of their newfound DigiDestined mates. The muddy lock in Daniel's tan hair and the dusty tint of his azure eyes. Jessica's bold magenta tress against her bronze blond hair and the unusual cosmic look of her formerly jade eyes. Phillip's silvery-white strands livened his bland umber hair, as well as the gray outline of his brown irises. Justine's star-colored tress against her night brown hair, and the starry speck in her purple-blue eyes. Matt's leaf-green lock and the almond-shape green specks in his airy blue eyes. Phillip puts in a comment or two about digimon, since he seems to be the only one knowledgeable about them. It is almost in vain.

There is a sliding sound not far away that turns five heads to the bushes simultaneously. A lone orange cat walks out of the brush. He eyes the group with his mint green eyes, and flashes his icy-blue streaked tail, and meows a greeting. "Katmondu, slow down," a voice calls from behind him.

The group freezes. Matt freezes, "I know that voice anywhere. It's Chris."

: : :

I walk out of the brush behind my cat, holding Virginia in my arms. _I heard voices; I swore I did. _I suddenly see five more people. People I know. Some of my best friends Matt, Phillip, and Daniel, my neighbor Justine Reyes, and a long-time acquaintance, Jessica Williams. One by one, I notice that they all have streaked hair, causing me to finger my own blue locks. I suddenly catch my small reflection in Jessica's reflective pupil. My surroundings flash away in a purple light, and only Jessica is visible, but the mirage disappears with another flash. I blink and I notice her acting similarly.

Matt breaks the silence, or at least the silence in my head. "Chris! So this is where you disappeared to! This DigiWorld or whatever Phillip is calling it."

Still in awe, I respond, "Yeah, I got this D-3, as did Katmondu down there, and this little girl, Virginia. Then we were here. We've been here for three days. And some weird stuff happened." I pause, regaining my concentration, "Which you may know about. Have you all… changed?"

"Yes, we have. The powers, auras, monsters, all that. We only got here two days ago. Monday morning." Matt comments.

"Me and Phillip arrived yesterday morning." Justine commented.

Daniel speaks now, "You called the walkie-talkie thing a D-3 like Phillip. Do you know what's going on? He's giving us a weird story."

I nod and smile, "Yeah, I think I could tell a more realistic one. Tonight. I think we all need to get settled first."

: : :

I see Jessica sitting down alone. The rest of the gang is chatting up a storm around a circle of logs, so I go sit down next to her. "J.J., what's going on?"

Quite flat, in a matter-of-fact way, she answers, "I have visions."

"Well, Justine has clairvoyant callings. Phillips hears the thoughts of the animals. And me?" I hold up my hand.

Jessica suddenly fingers her hair. "It's wet."

I flick the tress in front of her eye. It swings back.

"Give up. It stays there. By the way, nice water power. I look like a drowned rat." She eyes me dully.

I flip my wrist and Jessica's hair dries instantly.

Combing her fingers through her hair, she jokes, "Hey, who needs a hair dryer when you're around?"

I smile, "Yeah, I leave a slushy trail every time I try to pet Katmondu, who's now an ice tiger and loving every minute of it. So I pull that little magic trick to get the slush off. So, you're the…"

"Sister."

"Yeah. Whose sister? Besides the obvious. Your siblings."

She sighs and looks at me… stares even. " 'He whose hair that mocks the color black and with eyes of darkened gold. With the power of airy sea that protects those in need.' "

I frown, "What's that?"

"A riddle. A little unicorn told me it. Only not so little."

"Sounds like me."

"Tell me about it. Nicormon even said 'The Caretaker.' "

"Well, hate to break it to you, Honey, I'm not quite your brother."

She nods, "I know, but when you looked at me. I had a vision. Not _of_ anything. But suddenly, everything but you disappeared. I think I'm going crazy."

"Well, buy me a ticket. I'm going there, too. The same thing happened to me with you."

"Chris, I'm beginning to worry. If this is a dream, it's taking me days to dream it. And I've dreamed when I go to sleep. Plus…" she pinches me.

"Ow." I pinch back.

"Ow. See? It hurts! Dreams don't hurt."

I pinch back, "Well, neither does being a cartoon character, which the people normally associated with this world are."

Jessica muses, "We don't look a lot alike. And we were born within months of each other. There's not a lot of ways that we could be siblings."

I muse back, "Well, there's a lot of mystical ways we could be siblings. I mean, we could be figuratively siblings in some prophecy. Siblings of Destiny. Siblings in past lives. Who knows?" I give her a blank look.

"Well, if anything, I could use a brother." She leans on my shoulder.

I brush the hair out of her face, only the purple tress returning. "I've always wanted a sister. I don't like Mark much."

I press my hand against hers. Mine's slightly larger. I try to imagine Jessica as my sister. Suddenly two small, translucent spheres float around our hands. One is blue, the other purplish. "Jessica, are you doing that?"

She turns her head and opens her eyes, then lowers her brow. "No. I think you are. I can feel it." I move my hand away and they disappear. "Must be what it's like to have a Sister of Destiny."

In the distance, I watch Matt and Phillip haphazardly try to make a fire. I pull up Jessica and she lazily walks towards the fire, groaning. "You know, both are Boy Scouts, and both are excellent fire makers. So, I'm guessing there's too many cooks in the kitchen?"

She quietly chuckles, "Then why are we going over? Aren't you a Scout, too?"

"Yeah, but I'm not a good fire maker."

We laugh.

_Siblings of Destiny…_

: : :

A/N: Hmm. I hope this is going okay. I'm rearranging a few of the stories from their previous order, so I have to check and make sure that they still make sense. Anyway, 9 of 13 done, including the prologue. I'm really starting to enjoy this.

(Sonriso) - I would just like to thank the Academy for this honor. It's really inspiring to… What? Can't a punctusmiley dream?


	10. Brightness of Cinder

The Powers Within: Brightness of Cinder

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, General

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: A new DigiDestined joins the group.

A/N: I would like to applaud all those readers who realized that so far, there are only seven DigiDestined. I would like to further applaud those who acknowledged the fact that the title of the story resembles another chapter where someone gets their power.

* * *

Chapter 9: Brightnessof Cinder

I pull the notebook out of my backpack and leaf through it. I turn to the page where I have drawn the crest with a symbol of an eye. Jessica, who is sitting beside me, points toward the symbol. Hey, you drew my crest."

"Yeah, I saw it on a bluff coming down here."

Matt, who comes to my other side, comments, flipping the pages, "Wait a sec. I count nine crests. There are only six of us with powers… seven. Sorry, I always forget to count your cat."

Phillip turns his head abruptly, as does Katmondu. _What have they heard?_ "Guys?" I said, closing my notebook.

"I heard something," Phillip responds. Katmondu walks into the woods, stalking carefully. "I'll go check it out," Justine offers. They walked into the thin woods, the light of the fire slowly becoming less illuminating. The glow from their crests is sufficient.

Justine stops, _I swear I saw something orange back there_. She quietly creeps toward it. It's a girl. She has fiery red hair. Justine kneels down beside her, seeing an yellow-orange D-3 on her waist. She nudged the girl. The redhead moans and pushes herself up. Anna Lee. A fellow eighth grader. Her digivice is still glowing with orange light.

She becomes alert… and bewildered. "What's… what's going on? Where am I?"

"Shhh, Anna, calm down," She turned to Justine, seeing her, her hands shaking wildly. "Justine? What's happening? This thing" she motions toward the digivice "flew through my window and landed on my desk… right _in front_ of me!"

"It's okay, it's okay… You're in the DigiWorld. You are DigiDestined. Destined to save this world and our own. There are others. Come see and it'll all be explained to you."

"Okay…"

: : :

The three girls in the group have taken a lot of the responsibility of Virginia off my hands. We are now even starting to have fun in our little group. But a question is still floating in everyone's mind: "How do we get home?"

The next day, we leave the forest region. The vegetation disappears and we enter a desert of sorts. The sun is blazing. It is hot! I don't feel the burning effect, my invisible misty aura absorbing it all, but I do feel the heat. The axiom, "It's not the heat; it's the humidity." comes to mind. We even see a cactus on fire. We seek shade in a nearby cave. We are content with talking for a while in the cool shadows, but I swear Anna perks up for a moment, as if she's heard something.

_'The Sanguine, isn't it? Always late. Always empty-headed. Blissful, but never really happy.'_

Before we know it, it is late afternoon. Daniel volunteers to take a brief excursion, gladly returning with news of coolness. We evacuate the cave, enjoying the cooler air. We progress to climb a hill, only to find a huge… hole… a basin. Where a river should ideally be. But instead, nothing but a sunken ship. Something familiar about the area.

"Phillip, do you recognize this?"

"Wait, yeah! From the Birdramon episode. The lake. Hey, where are those little huts that the Yokomon made?" Usually, we would get strange looks, but now, we are a great source of information.

"I think I know. Look."

Sure enough, in the distance are little huts. Burnt-down little huts. We run over there. No Yokomon, fortunately. The huts were definitely severely singed. "My gah…" Anna whispers, "What destroyed the little houses of, from what I understand, little creatures?"

"Who knows?" Phillip comments.

Anna leaned over to touch one of the huts, one that is still smoking. She pulls her hand up after a while, putting in to her chin. She pulls it away confused. "Aack! My hand… it's red hot. But it doesn't hurt."

"Doesn't hurt?" Matt commented, "The only burns that don't hurt are third degree. Chris, check her hand."

I hold Anna's offered palm. It's not burned, but it should be. I can feel the heat radiating off it. "And it doesn't hurt?"

"No. Not at all. It just felt a little warm against my cheek." I touch the burned area, my mist sizzling an inch away from it. "Strange, very strange. Maybe you have a power like us."

_'What do have to be happy about, anyway? None of your friends really likes you. You just came late and they're being nice.'_

"Power, like you guys? And doesn't anybody here that voice?" Anna asks, looking around.

Daniel sighs, "A voice? You should have told us earlier. We forgot to tell you. Hearing a voice is a sign that you'll get a power."

Jessica screams. Now the center of attention, Jessica is pulled into the sandy ground. I try to grab at her, but before I can get very far, Matt starts to sink, then Daniel, Phillip, Katmondu, everybody is suddenly sinking. Justine, who's closest, grabs Anna and start running. Something catches Anna's ankle. Justine stops, turns, and grabs it, pulling it out of the ground. It is some mole-like digimon emerges.

"No, no, don't hurt me. Please!"

"What are you doing with our friends?" Anna asks angrily.

"We Molemon don't know what the great lord's plan is, we were just told to execute it."

Justine leaps, feeling a vibration under her. Soon, it becomes a small earthquake. She falls over, as does Anna, dropping the underground varmint. They see an indention of sinking sand. A figure rises from it. He appears to be made of sand, but his entire body is flaming. "So, if it isn't the DigiDestined. Well, the ones we missed. Stupid, worthless Molemon. Allow me to introduce myself, I am TerraMeramon."

(A/N: Hahaha, that rhymes. Terra Mera. Oh, shoot, I ruined the moment, didn't I?)

"What have you done with our friends?" Justine asks bravely. "That voice," Anna starts, "that's the voice that was mocking me! Saying I had no friends. That none of you guys like me."

"Well, you don't, do you, Inquirer. You are jealous on Anna, aren't you?"

"Of course I like her! What do I have to be jealous of?" In a flash, she finds herself in his arms, feeling the extreme heat against her skin. Anna rushes him like a football player, and Justine falls from his arms. But she's too late. Justine is on the ground, unconscious, her skin sickly red.

Anna starts to weep. "No, you didn't." but she has disbelief in her voice. She covers her eyes, crying. TerraMeramon laughs evilly. Anna hears a sizzling sound of her hand. She looks down, her red burn spot sizzling against her tears. She then looks at her shirt. The shoulder is singed and blackened, but she rubs her shoulder, not wincing. She pulls up the sleeve. Her shoulder looks sunburned, but does not ache. She smiles. She reaches down and touches Justine. Immediately the redness fades and her hand absorbs it. She wipes her eyes and touches Justine with her tear-wetted hands. Justine sharply inhales. Anna smiles again and looks back up. "Whoops, seems like you've made a boo-boo. You messed with the wrong DigiDestined."

Her digivice glows with a red-orange light. Justine stands beside her, much to TerraMeramon's surprise. Justine looks over to see Anna's hair fluttering in the wind. Her hemispherical aura ignites, burning like the red coals of a campfire. Justine feels the warmth radiating from it. Anna's crest materializes from her D-3, and places itself with the brief golden glow around her neck. Her body seems to ignite, quietly burning. The orange shape changes. When it extinguishes, a figure emerges. She is Anna, but clothed only in a sleeveless, knee-length dress of fire. Her hair appears aflame.

Frightened, the Molemon come from the ground. This time, they're not submissive, but savage. Several attack Anna at one time, covering her. She ducks down, covering her face. Suddenly, the pile is a burning inferno. When the flames subside, only Anna is left. She turns her attention to TerraMeramon, who shoots a blast of fire at her with a scream of "Desert Inferno." Anna leans her head back and the fire passes her like a strong breeze. Anna now speaks to the fire monster in a loud, wispy voice. Two wing of fire emerge from Anna's back. She jumps into the air, a large cloud of fire surrounding her.

"Brightness of Cinder!" she screams. The Sanguine is overcome with flames again, and a fiery beam strikes TerraMeramon, who turns black. A obsidian statue is all that remains. The Sanguine dives, grasps the rock in her arms, and heads toward the empty lake. At the edge of the basin, the statue is released, shattering as it hits the side, completely dedigitalizing. The Sanguine glows orange again as she lands. Her aura leaves and she faints, never getting the chance to stand up straight, but Justine is there to catch her from behind. She's feverishly warm, but soon cools.

Justine lowers her to the ground. The sweating redhead looks up to her friend, breathing heavily, "Justine, did that just happen?"

"Yeah it did, Ember."

"Ember?"

"Nice name for a fire goddess."

"And what shall I call my starry friend? Nova?"

Justine smiles, as does Anna. "Have I changed?" the redhead prompts.

"Yeah, your hair is now fiery red."

"Very funny, Nova."

"All right, Ember, you have ash gray and deep red streak in your hair. Right here." she says, showing the two mingled tresses to her. As Anna looks up, Justine can see, around Anna's emerald green eyes, an orange ring with a small flicker at the top.

Several pops from the ground alert them. The two girls see their fellow DigiDestined dig their half-buried bodies out from the sand, giving us their arms to pull up with. I give a sigh of relief seeing Virginia still safe, though sandy, in Jessica's arms. After brushing off, we walk toward a forest in the distance, hoping to get there before dark, silenting wondering about Anna's transformation.

I walk near the back beside Jessica and watch Justine help to support the tired Anna. Justine marvels at her friend's crest. On a light orange background reminiscent of Anna's ember-red hair, there is a semicircle, base down, with a band curved over it and a small flame on top with small rectangles on either side. We hear her whisper, dreamily…

"I am the Sanguine."

: : :

That night, we made a large campfire. We pulled up logs to sit on, around the campfire. Anna is lying sleepily in Justine's lap. I start, "Anna, you listening?" She nods, her eyelids heavy, then yawns. I continue, "Well, I'm sure you all wanting a more realistic story that Phillip told you. It's not Phillip's fault; I'm can just tell it in a more objective way. And I'm going to try something with Jessica here. We're going to animate it."

I put my hand palm to palm to Jessica's. "Okay," I tell her, "Just try to sense what I am thinking."

She closes her eyes and calls upon her power, her crest glowing beneath her tee shirt.

My Crest of Paternity hovers holographically above the campfire. Jessica turns to me, and I smile knowingly. She smiles back. I looked to the campfire and announced to the silent, anticipating audience, "Okay here it goes…"

: : :

A/N: Okay, who's counting. Yes, there's eight now. So, unless you've read the old series, you don't know what going to happen next. How's that for a cliffhanger? Duh, it's a horrible cliffhanger. Tell me you didn't think in your mind, "Wow, good cliffhanger."

(Sonriso) - Yo, Creedogmon, watch the sarcastic comments. I don't get paid for nothing here. Hold it, I get paid nothing. I'm calling my lawyer… who I can't pay for. Oh, well.


	11. A Story Revealed

The Powers Within: A Story Revealed

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, General

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: Christopher's tale of the Digital World.

A/N: As I disclaimer, I would like to note that the great majority of this fic is not my creativity. It is recounting.

* * *

Chapter 10: A Story Revealed

August first, 1987. We were all but infants. But in a Japanese city called Highton View Terrace, there was a terrorists bombing late at night. This is not true. An alternate universe, the Digital World, has existed as long as the Earth but has been separate… until the 1970's, where an international computer network was set up, soon to be called the Internet. It was parallel world with a similar electronic network in the DigiWorld, and therefore connected.

A material connection was created a few nights before August first. In this Japanese city, an unborn creature of the Digital World, a DigiEgg, was transferred via an open computer. This happened in the household of the Yamagi family, who had two children, Taichi, 7, and Hikari, 4. Hikari and Taichi took care of the egg, soon finding it to hatch into a small black creature. It soon went under more changes. It changed one night into a large, orange, dinosaur-like creature.

The creature leaped from the house, reeking havoc down the street. A break in the DigiWorld sent a large parrot monster to Earth, causing more chaos. The dinosaur and the parrot fought brutally, causing damage only explainable by terrorist bombings. The two monsters disappeared, but digital gates between the two worlds were being created across the world, but this time, secure, lockable gates.

The break in the DigiWorld caused an imbalance of good and bad. Some humanoid beings in the other world started to create special devices to bring special humans to the DigiWorld to balance the forces. They chose the two children that came into contact with the monsters, as well as other child witnesses of the battle. This would set a precedent.

When the time to bring the children to the DigiWorld had arrived, destiny brought them together, exactly four years after the incident. One child's egg was separated from the rest when the laboratory that created the devices was breached. Destiny held that this child would be later recovered, Hikari, the first child to see a digimon in the real world. Their return for her caused an imbalance in both worlds. They followed an evil digimon into their world, and left the other world unguarded. The team prevailed, but their victory further damaged the separation of the world. A visual rift was created, exposing the masses of people to the Digital World.

Hundreds of people around the world saw digimon. Many would forget. But, soon, a million children would be DigiDestined because of what they witnessed. When the team returned to the DigiWorld, they were able to once again defeat the evils and restore a stable balance, a balance that could only be held stable for four years.

A DigiDestined child broke the balance by giving the DigiWorld a new source of power: humans. One of the First DigiDestined humans, then an adult, had created an evil spore to plant within a human. His target was this boy, who had emotional instability since the death of his older brother. This child severely created problems, but something happened.

The child was restored by new DigiDestined. The world had near a million of them at this point. This restoration caused other evils to go after the Real World. A War of the Worlds was fought and good won.

It was written in books that twenty-five years later, every person on Earth would have a digimon. Although that's still in the future, it hasn't happened yet. Those books shouldn't exist yet. Somehow, the entire story was switched to a fantasy world, to be deemed that it was only a fictional story. As far as the world knows, digimon aren't real.

But we've seen otherwise. We have witnessed them. And the fictional story alibi doesn't fit. The newspaper story about the bombing exists. In the article, it talks about no evidence of whom or of what caused the attack. And the names of the children, all were found in old records, but nothing since 1991 talks of them, except the cartoon show _Digimon: Digital Monsters_. And it comes from Japan. Somebody or something is trying to destroy the factual existence of this world, its inhabitants, and the interactions between our worlds.

Maybe the story of us having digimon by the 2020 is correct, but if something doesn't change, it might not…

: : :

A/N: Yes, I know it was brief, but there is no action in this chapter. Lots more stuff happens later.

(Sonriso) - Well, it's been great, folks. I hope to see you soon. Hey, what are you doing with my cue card? "You… idiot… the… story… isn't… over… There… are… two… more… chapters…"


	12. Purity of Sunlight

The Powers Within: Purity of Sunlight

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon_

Genre: Fantasy, General

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The final DigiDestined gets a power.

A/N: I hope you're enjoying the story so far, because it's almost ending. There are two more stories in the series, but this book is closing.

* * *

Chapter 11: Purity of Sunlight

I remove my hand from Jessica's. We re all quiet for a while, taking in the story. Finally, Phillip breaks the silence, "Wow, Chris, how were you able to use Jessica's power?"

"To tell you the truth, I'm not completely sure. I have gone around and tried to do it with other people's power, but with no avail. Jessica has to. But, uh…"

Jessica finishes for me; "Christopher and I seem to have a special connection here. Nicormon spoke of whose Sister I was, giving me this strange riddle. With hair that mock the color black and eyes of darkened gold. With the power of airy sea who protects those in need."

Matt comments, "Sounds like Chris."

I smile, "For now, we're calling it Siblings of Destiny."

: : :

I sit on a log, watching the three girls play with Virginia. Somewhat, I am jealous that I have to share her. On the other hand, I'm relieved that the burden has been taken off me, even if it is my duty as her babysitter and the Caretaker to take care of her. I've been babysitting for well over a hundred hours straight.

"Baby," she comments about her doll, which is clothed in yellow. She has always been fascinated by babies. Anna smiles, "Well, you're a mother in the works if I ever saw one."

"Sheep," she points out on her doll.

"Is that a lamb on your baby's dress, Esperanza?" I ask her.

"Lamb." she replies.

The girls laugh. Katmondu then walks out of the woods, rather contentedly. He meows loudly at me.

"Kid-tee!" This is, of course, from Virginia. She gets herself up and wobbles toward my cat. She gets another "Kid-tee" in before trying to pet him, but lacking sufficient manual dexterity to do so. She decides rather, to grabs his tail. He slides it out before she gets a good grip, gives her a rather indignant meow, and moseys off, Virginia still in tow.

I feel the raindrops before I see them.

"Rain," I comment.

Jessica looks at Virginia, "Esperanza's not going to like being wet."

I add, "Neither is Katmondu. He'll be covered in ice."

Anna looks around, "Justine and I'll find the guys. You guys find a cave or something."

So, we split up. A quarter mile back into the woods, we find a shallow cave. Deeming it worthy of an umbrella, we enter. I drop Katmondu, who shakes the ices crystals off his back and start to wander deeper into the cave. Jessica puts down Virginia, who waddles back outside. A raindrop hits her hand and she looks at it curiously. She holds her hand out for us to see. Jessica wipes off her hand. Virginia looks down, frowning. She looks up at me and step toward me. I sit down and put her in my lap. She reaches under my shirt and triumphantly shows off her newly wet hand.

The two of us can hardly help laughing. Jessica wobbles and sits down. "Vision," is all she can mutter before blacking out. I grab her hand, and am suddenly part of the vision.

It's rather blurry and the sound is warped, but I immediately recognize my surroundings. I am at my church. I walk towards the front, Jessica beside me, and a minister is baptizing a young baby by the baptismal font. I can't make out the words, but I recognize the tone.

"In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen." I whisper.

A woman grabs a microphone and begins to talk. I don't understand her garbled words, but at the sound of her voice, a tear comes to my eye. Everything disappears.

Jessica, awoken, breathing heavily, asks, "What was that?"

I answer, "That was Virginia's baptism." I wipe the tear.

"What's wrong?"

"That lady beside the minister. It was my mom."

She pauses, "It was, wasn't it?"

I nod and look toward Virginia. She is looking at the roof of the cave.

"Dah-dee?" she mumbles.

Jessica and I look to each other.

I grab her. "Virginia, Daddy's not here right now."

Jessica gets her attention, "Honey, Daddy will be back real soon, but for right now, you've only got us. And the other big people, too."

She begins to cry. I try to soothe her, but it doesn't work. I hand her to Jessica, who tries too, without luck. She just keeps looking up at the roof, her head looking back and forth. I get an epiphany, "Jessica, she's hearing voices."

Jessica looks at me, eyes wide, "She's getting a power?"

"She's got a D-3."

_'So, the Angel is falling. What a tragedy.'_

"Jessica, did you hear that?"

"Yeah, I did. But it sounds like those voices that only the DigiDestined is supposed to hear."

"Jessica, it sounds like Virginia's dad."

A great crash comes from the ground. Jessica's and my auras alight instantly, forming a shield for Virginia at the intersection. Katmondu's aura forms as well, because of the loud crash. He is already transformed. A black form emerges from the ground. "Devimon…" I breathe.

The Defender pounces on the black devil digimon, who hits him with his arm, launching the tiger into the forest with a black explosion. It is Devimon, the devil digimon, with black horns, clawed hands, and glowing red eyes.

"Angemon killed you."

"Well, that's the funny thing about digimon. Even when you destroy them, they're not really dead. Sometimes, even when you do kill them, they're still not dead. Black Force!"

He extends his clawed hand and emits a glowing blast. Our auras take the blast, sending us back. My aura splatters away and Jessica's fades. We transform and run back, robed and ready.

We're not quick enough. Devimon is set to take another shot at Virginia.

"Might of Forest!"

"Victory of Stone!"

Vines and rock surround Devimon, who casually breaks them with his arms.

"Protection of Mist!"

"Reality of Illusion!"

The others join in, but fail. "Foolish DigiDestined, your measly natural powers are useless against me." Finally, with all of us on the ground, and Virginia sitting gleefully on the ground, Devimon emits another black blast. It doesn't hit her. A yellow sphere takes the impact, but the blackness now seeps through, covering her with a dark aura.

"Foolish DigiDestineds. The young one, the Angel, is now being corrupted. I present to you the Advocate of Guile."

I feebly look at Virginia, disbelieving that Devimon has taken over her. I sense something. I close my eyes to focus. Her forehead. I feel… water on it.

Devimon laughs evilly, "I have corrupted her very soul without words, but the very essence of evil. You all would die from such exposure, but she has taken it. She is unstoppable."

"You're not wrong." I tell him.

Devimon laughs, "Advocate, tell them what I have told you. Kill them with the evil I have given to you."

"Cree," she giggles. "Dah-dee, Mah-mee, Cree, Yay-yay."

His voice deep, Devimon howls, "What is this?"

Virginia starts to cry.

A scream rings out. It is Devimon's scream. We look up and see a stream of dark red liquid flowing from below his horns.

I hear a motherly voice, "Devimon. That's what happens when you try to corrupt what is blessed and pure."

We look over to Virginia. She is floating in her spherical aura, which shines like the sun. It becomes so bright, I must shield my eyes, but it withdraws, leaving only the Angel. Virginia is now clad in a simple dress, which is pastel yellow. She has two, white feathery wings, which flap ever so slowly. Her eyes glow with sunlight.

The voice returns, coming from the Angel, but not her lips. "Devimon, you cannot corrupt a blessed soul. You can, however, bless a cursed soul. Purity of Sunlight!"

I am immediately blinded by the great glow that the Angel radiates. I can only imagine what the glow must look like from up above, an ever-widening ball of light. Then there is the ear-piercing shriek of Devimon. I can almost imagine him being impaled by each ray of sunlight. "I will return" is the last sound I hear from him.

The light subsides and Virginia floats to the ground, peacefully asleep.

We regroup and go on our way. The sun is setting.

The wind blows, and I can barely make out the voice saying, "I am the Angel."

: : :

A/N: Well, there's one more chapter left. Are you excited? Anyway, you won't want to miss it. Or the other two stories when they're up.

(Sonriso) - I am so in awe, I can only offer a pathetic joke: Does anyone else like his or her eggs sunny-side up?


	13. All Together, Plus More

The Powers Within: All Together, Plus More

by Creedogmon

edited by Godeerc VanDrey

Category: _Digimon___

Genre: Fantasy, General

Rating: PG

Language: English

Summery: The DigiDestined, now all-powerful, search for a way to get home.

A/N: Well, it's been great having you read the story. Remember, this is only Part 1, so come and check for the next part, which is tentatively called "The AntiCrests."

* * *

Chapter 12: All Together, Plus More

It's been a nearly a week since I've been gone. My parents have to be worrying. I wish I could tell them I'm stuck in the DigiWorld and that I'm trying to save it. I don't think they would believe me. Plus, we haven't technically been faced with anything seriously threatening the existence of the DigiWorld. We're just here, getting powers.

I walk beside Jessica, my Sister of Destiny. She holds the sleeping Virginia, who sleeps from sundown to sunup, her power apparently derived from sunlight. She recently got her power, the Purity of Sunlight, and her tag, the Crest of Innocence. Virginia's tag and crest are constantly glowing, showing her ongoing innocence. On a light yellow background, there is a circle with six triangles around it, looking like a sun. Inside the circle are four figures in the shape of butterfly wings.

We see the exit of a forest ahead. As we approach it, the foreground become clearer and clearer: burnt, destroyed, killed. The land outside the forest is in ruins. Blackened rocks and ashes of former trees are scattered about in the distance. We look westward and see a black glow coming from the cliff to our right. It is moving slowly, covering a large area of the cliff. And as it passes, rock blackens and weathers, trees are reduced to ashes, and the landscape becomes bleakly gray.

Daniel and Matt head the group out of the forest. Like their powers, they have become strong and forceful. They exchange glances.

Matt starts, "Well, I don't like the looks of it."

Daniel picks up a stone and grasps it firmly. The stone does not break, but remains firm. "Me neither. We gotta go see what it is, though."

"That's like walking into a trap." Matt warns.

"As opposed to putting our tails between our legs and running."

Matt grits his teeth, "We are not running away. We got nowhere to run to. We will look, but I suggest we avoid fighting." He leans against a tree, mindlessly feeling a hard vine wrapped around it.

"I didn't say we should fight."

"Neither did I. I said we should avoid it. If we have to, we have to." Daniel nods in agreement.

Then there is silence. Justine appears in deep thought.

Daniel notices, "Justine?"

Justine looks up, tacit. For a moment, she admires a lone star twinkling in the dusk sky. Anna touches her shoulder and gives Justine a look that pores into her. Justine looks into the distance, watching a small flame slowly consumes the last remnants of a tree, getting deeper into the roots. Anna watches as well. Justine turns toward Anna, who returns her glance. Justine finally adds, "We need a plan. If we rush in there, we leave ourselves without an escape. We've got powers, let's use them. Personally, I'm all rested up." Silence returns.

Phillip volunteers, "I'll listen around. See how bad the digimon think that blackness is. I'll even check it out."

Daniel nods, "All right." Phillip slips in the woods, without a sound. I see Katmondu's ears turn towards Phillip's direction. _Not completely without a sound._ My cat disappears cunningly and obediently, his actions like Phillip's, or vice versa. He rubs against my legs, leaving a thin layer of ice. As I walk by, it breaks off onto a thorn bush that brushes my pant leg.

Anna muses, "If we think we're strong enough, I say we go for it."

Jessica replies, confidently, "We're strong enough. As soon as Phillip gets back, I say we go. We've gotten this far."

Matt smiles at her confidence. I, however, notice her hand shaking under Virginia's body. Her breath is irregular. I feel tears coat her eyes, but they do not fall down her cheek. Virginia sleeps happily, a small smile on her face. She sleeps deeper as the sun sets, but her crest continues to illuminate Jessica's face and glistening eyes.

Phillip and Katmondu return. Phillip is at unease. "Fear, lots of fear. The fear is lessening, but that's because they're all running away."

A light sprinkle of rain starts to fall. The hair of our group begins to wet. The group which seemed rather spread out sudden appears closer. Our surroundings seem farther away. "All the DigiDestined so far came here to save the world. If we are DigiDestined indeed, that is our job. True heroes know when to retreat and when to fight."

A long silence, then, a meek "Fight." This is Jessica. Her illusion of confidence is visible, but barely.

Matt and Daniel join in with their "Fight." Five more calls to action.

"We fight, then." I finish, the rain disappearing.

We approach the cliff of growing darkness. Suddenly, a glow comes from Jessica. No, from Virginia. Her crest is glowing ever brightly at the cliff. Her light causes a gap in the blackness. As we come within feet of the bluff, the blackness retreats from the Angelic Crest. We look around for a path up the hill but there is none. Daniel closes his eyes and walks forward to the cliff, his arms outstretched.

I can see his face straining to do something as his palms touch the rock wall. His crest glows dimly. "Daniel, what are you trying to do?" Matt asks him.

"Trust me." Daniel replies. The rock cliff starts to make a crushing sound. We soon see why. A triangular piece of rock extends out, creating a crude ramp halfway up the cliff. Daniel also creates an incline going up the rest of the way. He exhales hard as he pulls away from the cliff, obviously tired. Matt grabs his arm and assists him up the ramp until his energy returns. He puts his hand on the cliff and roots sprout from the ramp and make handrails.

The sky darkens to almost night. At the end of the escalation, we side behind a large boulder to look at what the blackness is doing now. We tremble in fear at what is behind the boulder. A large ghost-like creature, completely black, with tattered black clothing, long black claws, red eyes, black horns, and pretty much black everything is something. Below, flowing slowly under him is blackness, which is spreading, killing plants in its wake.

"Hey, it looks like Devimon," Phillip comments.

"It does, but he's different. More evil, even for Devimon. I thought T.K. and Angemon got him. And I thought Virginia did, too. But what digivolved form of Devimon is this?"

The ghost turns to us. We don't move. He couldn't have seen us, but we could feel his eyes on us. Jessica's magenta crest glows lightly. I heard the voice of Matt on the other side of the field, yelling, "Go, you big black evil monster. You're going down!" We look around the rock and see all of ourselves standing in a group on the other side of the field. Of course, it was one of Jessica's illusions. "Way to go, J.J." I tell her.

We see his blackness curl around our fake images, seemingly crushing us. The Devimon wasn't convinced. "Nice try, Sister, but it won't work. For I am Devideitymon. Evil Eruption!"

The boulder hiding us explodes, our auras protecting us, but leaving us exposed.

"Enigma of Star!" a white comet with a blue-purple tail strikes Devideitymon, not phasing him. "Arr! Take this, Inquirer! Evil Slash!" Blackness emitted from his claws, nearly striking Justine, who dodges in time. "A little help up here!"

In mere seconds, we transform, attacking Devideitymon. Dozens of attacks hit him, but he did not seem affected by any of our attacks. He does wince at woken Virginia's attack of sunlight, but comes back at her with a black sphere. Virginia's aura takes the entire blast, but is unable to hold her in place. Attack after attack, we cease to cause a scratch. Even in our fury of attacks, he only laughs.

He sends a black cloud to strangle us, but we use what we have of our power to fend it off. We escape, but the attacks continue. We need help. I see Phillip and Katmondu trying pounce on him, but doing little damage. Anna has joined Justine in the air attacks. The black demon destroys every blast of mist, stone, and wood we throw at him. We were not hurt thanks to Mirage's illusions and our auras, but our energy is draining.

"Excaliber!" a deep, powerful voice echoed. We say Devideitymon move back after a white and multi-colored streak. As it slows, we saw the figure to be... MagnaAngemon.

"Celestial Arrow!" a female angel's voice calls as the Arrow of Light strikes him. To my left, I see two people. High school, maybe college students, one a blond boy, the other a brunette girl.

Though confused, we continued to attack with the aid of the angels. It still proved not to be enough. "Please," I pray. "Matador Dash!" a deep, scratchy voice. Through the woods, with great speed, comes a metallic blue streak. It strikes Devideitymon, who retaliated instantly, causing the blur to fly and land.

Now stilled, we see the creature is a brown bull, covered in gold-lined metallic blue armor, gold horns, and a red cape that I swear bears the Crest of Hope. "Bullmon! Are you okay?" I hear a familiar male voice. Running out of it was a blond haired boy my age: Eric McFly, a rather peculiar, fellow digimon fan from my school.

"Come on Bullmon, you can take this guy!" he reassures his digimon, and slowly, and painstakingly, the bull charges again. His golden horns caused a golden flash against Devideitymon, who falls to the ground, but quickly recovers. "Attack!!!" yells Matt. And we do. The combined attacks the myriad takes its toll. The demon takes every attack hard.

He seems to be dedigitalizing, but slowly. He bellowed, "Just wait, DigiDestineds, I will return to get you all!" And he was gone. The nine of us returned to our normal forms. MagnaAngemon dedigivolves to Patamon, Angewomon dedigivolves to Gatomon, and the Bullmon dedigivolves into a Wormmon, a yellow glow returning to Eric's breast pocket.

He was ecstatic at seeing me, "Chris, you're a DigiDestined, too? Awesome! Is that your digimon?" he said referring to Katmondu in my arms.

"No, Eric, this is my cat, who is, believe it or not, a DigiDestined too. None of us have digimon. We got powers from our crests."

The young man, with neck-length blonde hair, speaks to us, "You're DigiDestined with no digimon? Strange. Don't you think so, Hika-chan?" he said to the girl.

"Yeah, Take-chan,"

The voices are familiar. _Hika-chan__ Take-chan?_

I spoke, "T.K.? Kari?"

They turned bewildered at me. The blond man stutters, "How... how did you know our... names?"

"T.K. Takaishi and Kari Kamiya?" I start, "Well, I've seen you on TV. On a cartoon show called _Digimon__: Digital Monsters_. I think some force has tried to take you out of existent, well, factual existence."

"A TV show? Strange." the twenty-something T.K. answers.

"Yeah, it's the greatest show. Patamon armor digivolve to... Pegususmon! Flying Hope! That was awesome!" Eric laughs.

Patamon, nested on T.K.'s head, as usual, smiles happily, "He he, I'm famous, T.K.!"

: : :

The ten of us talk long into the night. (Katmondu's only input is licking or an occasional "Meow" and Virginia sleeps.) T.K. and Kari returned to the DigiWorld because Kari sensed the Darkness in it. Eric had apparently been exposed to a real digimon sometime, and got a Leafmon once he found his gray-green digivice. Neither T.K. or Kari seems to know anything about the Power of Crests, but I couldn't help but sense a lost memory in their eyes.

It is an announcement that lifts the spirits of the group. T.K. and Kari have access to a digiport, which will get us home. Late into the night, we make up a plan to tell our parents what had happened. We finally decide on not knowing anything. So, we'll suddenly find ourselves at home. But what about our eyes and hair? We might have to deny knowledge of that, too.

The consensus of the group is that we rather enjoyed the visit to the DigiWorld, despite the evil digimon and rugged wilderness. I don't believe that our visit was long enough to really make a difference. The Eight fought a multitude more battles than we did. We are still rather unclear about the source of our powers or our destiny in the Digital World. I don't voice my concerns, though. Talk about the reality/fantasy conflict surrounding the DigiWorld is also absent.

We left a letter at the campsite to other DigiDestineds that would come in the future:

"Dear DigiDestined,

We hope you do not fear you being here. It is your destiny. Do not fear the creatures here. Many are friendly. The ones that are not, you will be protected from. Be a team. Grow closer to the people in your group. They are your eternal allies. Good luck. Make the world proud. May you have a pleasant, but challenging adventure!

Your Fellow DigiDestined Allies,

Matthew Jacobs, the Magistrate of Tenacity

Daniel Ponille, the Champion of Ardor

Christopher VanDrey, the Caretaker of Paternity

Jessica J. Williams, the Sister of Care

Justine "Nova" Reyes, the Inquirer of Wonder

Annacaye "Ember" Lee, the Sanguine of Cheer

Phillip Maxx, the Patron of Servitude

Virginia Frend, the Angel of Innocence

Katmondu VanDrey, the Defender of Vigor

Eric "The Digimon Fanatic" McFly, the Unnamed of Insanity

Takeru "T.K" Takaishi, the Savior of Hope

Hikari "Kari" Kamiya, the Saint of Light

PS: You are powerful. Never forget that."

More or less the end. –Creedogmon

: : :

A/N: Well, that's all folks. For now. Too many questions have been left unanswered. I will answer many in the future. I will also pose more. There is a lot more going on, and you'd better get ready.

(Sonriso) - Hey, I work hard, Creedog. Why don't I have a digimon or a crest or a power or something? I could be the Herald of Sarcasm.


End file.
